ANC 2024 ELECTIONS MANIFESTO
FOREWORD
Over the past 30 years, the people of South Africa, led by the ANC, have been at the forefront of a movement to construct a new South Africa.
Our country has come a long way. We have made incredible strides and achieved so much. However, even after 30 years of freedom and democracy, our journey towards the South Africa that our people truly desire is far from over. We still have more hills to climb.
In the 2024 elections, we will therefore go beyond celebrating accomplishments. We learn from the past, from mistakes and setbacks, as we learn from achievements.
We will focus on six priorities that are critical to speeding up transformation and improving the lives of the people: our jobs plan; building our industries to include an inclusive economy; tackling the high cost of living; investing in people; defending democracy and advancing freedom; and building a better Africa and world.
We will do better, we will do more and we will do it faster. Together.
At the same time, there are forces that seek to use this election to undo the progress of democracy. It is crucial that together we defend our hard-won freedom.
By renewing the mandate of the ANC, we build on the foundations of the 30 years of freedom. We continue the journey towards a better life with equal opportunities for all South Africans, now and into the future.
Together, we will accomplish so much more.
Cyril Ramaphosa 24 February 2024
OUR VISION AND PLAN. TO DO MORE, TOGETHER.
Thirty years ago, South Africa started the journey to a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society, which guarantees a better life for all.
We have been guided along this journey by our Constitution, which urge us to act together to heal the divisions of the past and build a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights.
The National Development Plan sets our immediate national aspirations to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030 as a collective responsibility.
The ANC remains committed and resolute to correct mistakes, advance a better life for all and ensure that no one is left behind as we chart the journey for the next five years.
Our goal is to eradicate income poverty and reduce inequality, so that the wealth of the country is more equitably shared.
OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS, WE WILL FOCUS ON SIX PRIORITIES:
Put South Africa to work, through public employment programmes that create work opportunities in the public, small businesses and social sectors.
OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS, WE WILL:
- Create and sustain 2.5 million work opportunities delivering public goods and services in communities. This includes work done through the Presidential Employment Stimulus, funding to civil society through non-profit companies and organisations to provide work opportunities; expand and institutionalise the National Youth Service in partnership with the SANDF, and work opportunities for unemployed graduates,
- Increase support for small enterprises, entrepreneurs and cooperatives, especially in townships and villages, providing additional one million work opportunities, with set-asides for women, youth and persons with disabilities.
- Engage the private sector on job creation, to contribute to the national efforts to create employment and get South Africans working.
- Continue to promote and monitor employment equity to ensure that black people, women and persons with disabilities are represented in the public and private sectors, in the professions and artisanal sectors towards the growth of a vibrant, non-racial and non-sexist middle strata, critical to national development.
Build our industries for an inclusive economy, by implementing a cross-cutting industrial strategy that drives growth and creates opportunities for youth and other unemployed persons.
OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS, WE WILL:
- Advance industrialisation as a driver of economic transformation, with active support for localisation, and high growth and labour intensive industries.
- Protect strategic existing industries, like steel, and advance the industries of the future.
- Increase investment in a large-scale social and economic infrastructure plan.
- Fix the current constraint in energy, transport and logistics as important network industries and strategic national assets that are critical to industrialisation, growth and development.
- Continue cultivating partnerships to support the development and expansion of domestic industries with significant potential to create sustainable jobs.
- Expand the black industrialist programme to support 2,000 companies.
- Ensure small businesses, cooperatives and enterprises owned by women, young people and persons with disability – especially in townships and villages – are included across all value chains through set-asides in the public and private sectors.
- Increase exports to global and continental markets leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), BRICS Plus and other bilateral relationships.
- Accelerate land reform and redistribution to reduce asset inequality and protect security of tenure, improve food security and agricultural production, promote rural and urban development and enable greater access to housing.
- Align monetary, fiscal and trade policy, along with transformation of the financial sector, to meet basic needs and support job creation and industrialisation.
Tackle the high cost of living,
by taking steps to make everyday life more affordable for workers, unemployed persons, women-headed households and the middle class by addressing key needs like food, housing, health care, energy, transport and wages.
OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS, WE WILL:
- Prioritise food security, including through VAT exemption on essential items, land reform, support for community and home gardens. We will act against price fixing.
- Maintain and expand subsidised basic services like water, houses for the poor and indigent policies in municipalities.
- Strengthen health services and implement the National Health Insurance (NHI) to make quality health care affordable and available to all.
- Promote cheaper and subsidised solar power.
- Introduce measures to regulate rental prices for student accommodation.
- Ensure the National Minimum Wage increases in line with inflation and ensure full compliance.
- Strengthen income support through existing social grants and use the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants as a mechanism towards phasing in a basic income support grant.
Invest in people, by meeting the basic needs of all, investing in education,
improving health outcomes and improving service delivery.
OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS, WE WILL:
- Give national and provincial governments greater responsibilities to support municipalities that struggle to provide services to communities.
- Give national and provincial governments more powers
to intervene to provide clean water where municipalities are struggling to properly provide this service, build maintenance capacity and complete water infrastructure projects.
- Continue the progressive realisation of universal quality basic services and the provision of a social wage through education, housing, transport, water, sanitation, electricity, health care and communications.
- Improve governance and the public service, work with communities to deliver quality and reliable basic
services, eradicate corruption, and maintain and build new infrastructure.
- Invest in the capability of our people by improving access to and the quality of education and health.
- Strengthen the role of families in supporting both young and older citizens, giving special attention to the responsibilities of the family in raising children.
- Strengthen the quality of services provided for older persons, including community based and residential care facilities, and afford them the necessary consideration and respect by society.
Defend democracy and advance freedom.
OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS, WE WILL:
- Promote and defend the rights of all South Africans against racism, sexism, gender-based violence, homophobia, discrimination and other intolerances.
- Advance the rights and dignity of children, youth, older persons, persons with disability and members of
the LGBTQI community, and continue the fight for women’s emancipation and a truly non-sexist society.
- Intensify the war on crime and make our communities safe. This includes action against drugs, organised crime,
gender-based violence and femicide, infrastructure theft and vandalism, extortion and gangsterism.
- Tackle corruption, improve public accountability, strengthen investigation and prosecution capabilities and ensure severe consequences for corrupt activities in the public and private spheres.
- Overhaul the immigration system in line with the Draft White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection
to deal with the issue of irregular and illegal migration, simplify visa application procedures, introduce a unified citizen, refugee and migration law.
- Build a capable and developmental state, strengthen links between government at all levels and the people, rebuild and improve local government, build a professional and developmental public service based on Batho Pele principles, and strengthen cooperative governance through the District Development Model.
- Reinforce the contributions of arts, heritage, languages, culture, sports and the creative sector more generally to nation building, social cohesion and national development.
Build a better Africa and world, by supporting development and peace efforts on our continent and across the world, strengthen trade and investment links with other countries and work towards the reform of international bodies.
- Strengthen the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
- Promote peace, security, democracy and socio-economic development in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and other parts of the continent.
- Increase the voice of developing countries in multilateral institutions.
- Advance progressive internationalism and solidarity with the peoples of Palestine, Western Sahara, Cuba and others.
- Work with other countries in the fight against climate change, global poverty and inequality in line with applicable international resolutions.
- Ensure that our policies on regional integration and cooperation cover the movement of goods and people and resolve the issue of undocumented immigration.
Through these priorities will put South Africa back on track to achieve the National Development Plan 2030 objectives to eliminate income poverty and reduce inequality.
Drawing on the experiences we have gained, through this Manifesto the ANC makes a solemn pledge to South Africa to drive faster progress, more action, accountability, citizen involvement and better implementation.
Do More, Together. A Better Life for All
This year, the people of South Africa will be joined by the millions across the world who supported our struggle to celebrate 30 years of freedom.
Since the historic democratic transition to democracy in 1994, South Africa has made progress towards a more inclusive and equitable society.
30 years of constitutional democracy. The first democratic elections on 27 April 1994 was a turning point in our country’s history, demonstrating our shared commitment to nation building, freedom, social justice and democracy. Together we ended centuries of colonial and apartheid rule and established a new South Africa founded on a progressive constitutional democracy with equal freedoms and rights for all. Today, we have vibrant democratic institutions, a free media, an active civil society, regular, free and fair elections, and respect for the rule of law.
South Africa has integrated its institutions of traditional leadership, subjugated and marginalised by apartheid colonialism, into its democratic system of governance.
1994
DIVERSITY DEMOCRACY
Over the 30 years it has resulted in the recognition of kingdoms and one queen, the establishment of over 880 traditional councils in rural areas, and the formation of the Houses of Traditional leaders. Traditional leaders are therefore taking their rightful place in the governance of rural development, social cohesion and nation-building.
30 years of nation building: Apartheid sought to divide us by race, nationality and gender. A democratic South Africa seeks to unite us in our diversity. Despite the persistence of racism and sexism, inequality and poverty, our nation has steered through the pain of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, celebrated the achievements of our sporting
and cultural heroes, undertaken transformation policies and programmes, confronted gender-based violence and
femicide, and emerged more resilient from the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics.
We brought together our people from diverse backgrounds to work towards a common vision of a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and more equal South Africa. We have worked toward a transformative change in the social and economic conditions of the majority of South Africans.
Our journey towards social cohesion, solidarity and national unity must therefore continue.
NATION BUILDING
EQUAL SOCIETY
30 years of meeting basic needs: In his first State of the Nation Address in 1994, President Nelson Mandela
announced several measures to implement the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). These included free health care to pregnant women and children under six,
free housing for the poor, and massive roll-out of water, sanitation, electricity to those previously excluded. It also included the protection of workers’ rights and a focus on the rights of women, youth, persons with disability, children and older persons. Thirty years later, South Africa has achieved remarkable progress in providing a social wage and universal basic services across the country.
We will do more to consolidate, advance and modernise our basic services to leave no-one behind.
30 years of economic transformation: Despite persisting challenges, we made progress in economic transformation, with initiatives to promote job creation, infrastructure development, broadening economic opportunities and investment. Our economy has tripled in size since 1994 and the rate of poverty reduced. While unemployed has remained high, the number of people in employment has more than doubled from 8 million in 1994 to 16.7 million today.
WATER & SANITATION
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES
Many people who has been economy historically excluded, including workers, the middle strata, youth, women and persons with disability, are now actively participating in
the economy. Yet there are still too many South Africans unemployed, too many who live in poverty and income and wealth inequality persists.
Economic transformation therefore remains our foremost task.
30 years of our struggle for better education and health care for all. The ANC has vastly improved access to education and health, transforming the lives of millions of South Africans.
South Africans are more educated, empowered and healthier than they were under apartheid. From pre-schools to schools, colleges and universities, there has been massive increase
in people who are attending our non-racial educational institutions, many of which are fee-free for the majority of learners.
We will further improve education and health outcomes to overcome inequality and build capabilities of all.
The lives of millions of South Africans have improved. But, we cannot take this progress for granted.
We need to do more and better. Together.
EDUCATION HEALTH
The ANC is working to transform the economy to focus on increased industrialisation, jobs and opportunities for all.
South Africa has a choice: transform or stagnate. Our current economic model, which relies on exports and imports and has high levels of inequality, stifles job creation and inclusive growth. We need a radical shift to broad-based industrialisation, employment and youth and women’s empowerment by 2030.
We must balance market dynamics with state intervention to foster inclusive economic progress and address historical disparities.
As a middle-income country, South Africa needs to industrialise and reduce its reliance on primary commodity exports and the import of luxury and capital goods. Monopoly concentration inhibits the growth of small businesses and cooperatives and new entrants into markets.
Over the past five years, the country faced internal and external challenges, including economic downturns, the effects of state
capture, the COVID-19 pandemic, load shedding, global political conflict, the July 2021 unrest and climate change. This has tested our democracy, resilience and leadership. Despite these hurdles, we have focused our efforts on mitigating their impact and paving the way for recovery and job creation.
Young people in particular are hard hit by the poor performance of the economy. Many cannot find jobs or build businesses and their parents cannot pay for quality education. This has led to marginalisation and risky behaviour.
Now, South Africa stands at a crossroads. Choosing transformation requires bold policies, collective action and widespread commitment. Only then can the nation claim its economic destiny and build a future where prosperity is shared by all.
OVER THE LAST 5 YEARS, WE HAVE:
- Raised R1.5 trillion in new investment commitments, of which over R500 billion has already flowed into the economy.
- Taken decisive measures to end load shedding, ensure energy security, enhance logistics systems and improve ports and rail networks.
- Accelerated land redistribution so that around 25% of farmland is now owned by black South Africans.
- Supported 1,000 black industrialists, with these black- owned firms now employing more than 90,000 workers and contributing billions of rands to our economy.
- Supported worker ownership with over 200,000 more workers obtaining ownership of shares in the companies they work for, bringing the total worker ownership to well over 500,000 workers.
- Driven large-scale projects across the country, such as bulk water resources, road construction and human settlements.
- Taken unprecedented steps to respond to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic to protect lives and livelihoods. The health measures put in place and the introduction of the special SRD grant, income replacement schemes and loan schemes to support businesses saved many lives, businesses and jobs.
The progress over the last five years has laid a good foundation for the more rapid transformation of the economy, with emphasis on employment creation and active, state-led industrialisation drives supported by macroeconomic policy interventions.
These interventions will be complemented by infrastructure development, procurement policies, skills development and innovation which will support small businesses and cooperatives in township and rural economies.
Together we have a lot more to do to transform the economy and create more jobs
PRIORITY1
Put South Africa to work: Our Jobs Plan
While job creation has shown positive growth since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate, especially among young people, remains extremely high.
There is no shortage of work to be done to make South Africa a better place. In every street, community and village, people are ready and willing to contribute to social and economic development. Through
public and social employment programmes, industrialisation and support for small enterprises and cooperatives, we can create jobs at a much faster pace.
OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS, WE WILL:
- Expand public employment to sustain 2.5 million work opportunities delivering public goods and services in communities. This includes work done through the Presidential Employment Stimulus, funding to civil society through non-profit companies and organisations to provide work opportunities; expand and institutionalise the National Youth Service in partnership with the SANDF, and work opportunities for unemployed graduates,
- Increase support for small enterprises, entrepreneurs and cooperatives, especially in townships and villages, providing additional one million work opportunities, with set-asides for women, youth and persons with disabilities.
- Engage the private sector on job creation, to protect jobs and contribute to national efforts to create employment and get South Africans working.
- Continue to promote and monitor employment equity to ensure that black people, women and persons with disabilities are represented in the public and private sectors, in the professions and artisanal sectors towards the growth of a vibrant, non-racial and non-sexist middle strata, critical to national development.
PRIORITY2
Build our industries to achieve an inclusive economy, To transform our economy, government needs to drive industrial growth, innovation and job creation.
This involves targeted strategies to revitalise and diversify the manufacturing sector, foster a more inclusive and robust national and African market, skill and reskill workers and meet the new global challenge of climate change. A just transition to a cleaner, greener future can lead to new jobs and secure the competitiveness of our exports.
THE ANC WILL:
- Consolidate industrial and sectoral master plans into a comprehensive industrial policy to drive localisation.
- Prioritise industrial sectors that are labour intensive.
- Continue to cultivate partnerships to expand domestic industries with significant potential to create sustainable jobs such as mining (including artisanal and small-scale mining), agriculture, energy, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, the green and blue economies, tourism, the creative sector and the digital economy.
- Ensure alignment and coordination across all national departments and provincial and local governments for the implementation of sectoral master plans and Industrial Policy Action Plans.
- Implement export taxes on essential raw materials like cobalt, lithium, graphite, chromite, manganese and platinum to encourage local value addition, particularly for low- carbon production.
- More effectively use provisions in the Constitution and expropriation legislation to accelerate land reform and redistribution to reduce asset inequality and protect security of tenure, improve food security and agricultural production, promote rural and urban development and enable greater access to housing.
- Prioritise green technologies, energy efficiency, waste management, climate-smart agriculture and infrastructure and eco-friendly production processes to ensure long-term sustainability. This includes developing and executing a plan to become a world player in green hydrogen, battery and electric vehicle production.
- Mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change, technological changes and other trends in the context of a just transition and ensure that South Africa’s transition to a low-carbon economy supports communities and workers in affected areas, particularly Mpumalanga.
- Develop and expand the local digital sector through universal access to broadband, including at schools, making internet access affordable, investing in infrastructure, skills development, small enterprises and entrepreneurs, and promote future industries, platforms and applications of 4IR technologies.
- Establish and resource creative industries and digital hubs in townships and rural areas for digital content production, including animation, gaming, virtual reality and augmented reality, photography, graphic design, sound production, audio design, film and video production, digital art production, transmedia and digital marketing.
- Develop the creative industries, prioritising training, the rights of creative workers, protection of intellectual property, and support for creatives and companies in the sector.
- Leverage the state’s procurement budget to bolster local businesses producing goods and services while incentivising private enterprises to follow suit.
- Promote entrepreneurship, innovation and investment in emerging industries like renewable energy, sustainable tourism, e-commerce and agro-technology.
- Support at least 2000 black industrialists, especially women, persons with disability and young people.
- Support small-scale fishing cooperatives by ensuring the development of small harbours, the allocation of a
viable basket of species and the development of alternative livelihoods through eco-tourism and aquaculture.
- Increase exports to global and continental markets leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), BRICS Plus and other bilateral relationships.
- Accelerate land reform and redistribution to reduce asset inequality and protect security of tenure, improve food security and agricultural production, promote rural and urban development and enable greater access to housing.
- Align monetary, fiscal and trade policy, along with transformation of the financial sector, to meet basic needs and support job creation and industrialisation.
Invest in infrastructure Investing in infrastructure, especially energy infrastructure, roads and railways, is critical for inclusive economic growth. Investment in energy, in particular, is necessary to end load shedding and ensure a secure supply of electricity.
THE ANC WILL:
- Improve economic and social infrastructure such as roads, bridges, dams and fibre networks to support SMMEs and industrialisation.
- Build capacity, including technical, planning and project management capacity, to maintain all public infrastructure, and prioritise it in budgeting.
- Provide resources to maintain ageing infrastructure to prevent fire and other disasters.
- Prioritise investment in expanding the transmission grid so that more energy, including from renewable sources, can be supplied.
- Install solar water geysers in working class and poor households to support job creation and local manufacturing.
- Develop gas, nuclear and hydro power projects for increased energy generation.
- Support infrastructure roll-out through frontloading, insourcing, building state capacity and public-private partnerships.
- Restore domestic refinery capacity to ensure security of supply and establish a National Oil Company for petroleum refinery and petrochemical industrialisation.
- Mobilise investments in freight rail infrastructure to enhance logistics and shift goods from road to rail.
- Modernise commuter rail for efficient and green public transport.
- Restructure ports with modern technology to increase efficiency.
Transform the financial sector to support employment and industrialisation South Africa needs a transformed financial sector with diversified ownership and control –public, private and social – which provides affordable credit, invests in industrialisation, infrastructure and job creation, facilitates financial inclusion and prioritises domestic investment.
This requires a collaborative effort from the government, financial institutions, civil society and communities.
THE ANC WILL:
- Engage and direct financial institutions to invest a portion of their funds in industrialisation, infrastructure development and the economy, through prescribed assets.
- Finalise the establishment of a public sovereign wealth
fund as a social wealth investment fund that prioritise public benefit through targeted investments in social programmes, infrastructure and sustainable development initiatives.
- Work towards a state or public banking sector by creating development and sectoral banks focused on specific sectors aligned with industrial policy goals and building a public retail banking system to directly serve the people’s needs.
- Empower provinces to establish their own financial institutions.
- Empower cooperative banks by removing regulatory barriers to entry, including the review of the National Credit Act
and support the growth of cooperative banks. We will ensure affordable access by the cooperative banking sector to the national payment system, including ATMs and debit and credit cards.
- Ensure development finance institutions are well-capitalised to provide concessional lending to small enterprises and social enterprises, and develop their capacity to support regional development.
Pursue a developmental macroeconomic framework
THE ANC WILL:
- Align macroeconomic policy with economic and social priorities in this Manifesto.
- Coordinate fiscal and monetary policy mandates, including interest and exchanges rates, towards supporting balanced and sustainable growth as envisaged in the Constitution. Where necessary, this will require an expansionary fiscal policy.
- Mobilise additional domestic and international resources to support priorities in this Manifesto including through progressive tax reforms and other measures.
Create more opportunities for young people Young people played a vital role in shaping our democratic order. Their advocacy, creativity, energy and activism on a range of issues often push us to rethink our policies and ways of doing things.
- Universal access to basic education. As a result,
the youth literacy rate is above 95%, each year more students pass with matric, bachelor passes are increasing, especially in poorer schools and curriculum reform is in progress
to offer more vocational and technical subjects at school. Learners from poor households receive support in the form of no-fee schools, school nutrition and scholar transport. While fewer learners are dropping out before reaching matric, far too many children still do not complete school.
- Massive growth of post school education and
training. By 2021, over 2 million young people a year participated in universities, TVET and community colleges and SETA programmes. However, South Africa’s overall participation of young people in tertiary education is lower than the norm for middle income countries, and is racially skewed.
- Rapid expansion in public and social employment.
To address youth unemployment, set up the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI) and the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES), which has created 1.8 million jobs and livelihood opportunities and supported thousands of young people into self-employment and enterprise activity.
The SAYouth.mobi platform links young people to existing jobs and education opportunities, with over 4.5 million young people already registered. We launched provincial programmes to create jobs and provide community services such as the Nasi Ispani programme led by the ANC Gauteng government.
- Municipalities have also been prioritising young people in their programmes, through skills development, as well as expanded public works and community works programmes.
- Improved entry into employment. The requirement
of experience for entry level jobs in the public sector has been scrapped. Business has been encouraged to do the same.
However, youth unemployment remains a crisis, with 1.2 million young people each year joining the labour market. Around 3.4 million young people are not in employment, education or training, and 4.9 million people between 18-35 years who are unemployed.
Substance abuse is a major challenge in communities, with increased use of alcohol, painkillers, dagga and illegal drugs like heroine, tik, cocaine and nyaope. Substance abuse contributes to violence, risky behaviour, reckless sexual activity, poor academic performance and crime.
OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS, THE ANC WILL:
- Address the crisis of young people not in employment, education or training through increased efforts to reduce the number of learners who do not finish school and providing second chance opportunities to pass matric through community and TVET colleges.
- Prioritise young people in public and other work programmes, work-based learning programmes, artisan training and entrepreneurship programmes.
- Expand and institutionalise the National Youth Service in partnership with the SANDF, Expanding to provide skills and meet basic needs in communities, targeting intake of 100,000 young men and women.
- Working together with young people, their organisations and institutions, with families and sectoral formations, to tackle bullying, teenage pregnancy, crime, homophobia, gangsterism, gender-based violence, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS.
- Increase enrolment and graduation of students in universities, TVET colleges and community education and training colleges, particularly for African and coloured students and students with disabilities.
- Implement a national youth plan to tackle drug and substance abuse, embracing prevention and education in schools and communities, counselling, treatment and support. There will be stricter monitoring of underage drinking and taverns near schools, recreation programmes and peer-led interventions and law enforcement to clamp down on the flooding of communities with illegal drugs.
- Strengthen youth health services, including access to sanitary towels for girls and young women, including making them available in schools, universities and other public spaces.
PRIORITY3
Tackle the high cost of living, We will continue the war on poverty by providing comprehensive social security and basic services and addressing the impact of rising prices on households.
STRENGTHEN COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL SECURITY
THE ANC WILL:
- Strengthen our comprehensive social security system to reduce poverty, vulnerability, social exclusion and inequality through social assistance.
- Prevent vulnerability and destitution as a result of the loss of income through social insurance for workers.
- Progressively implement a basic income support grant by ex tending and improving the value and coverage of the SRD grant for the unemployed.
- Ensure the National Minimum Wage increases in line with inflation and ensure compliance.
- Protect the value of social grants for children, the elderly and persons with disability.
REDUCE THE COST OF LIVING
THE ANC WILL:
- Lower the cost of food through VAT exemption on essential items, support food security through land reform, support for community and home gardens, and act against price fixing.
- Ensure basic services are affordable by maintaining and
expanding subsidised basic services like water, houses and electricity for the poor. We will develop more subsidised human settlements.
- Implement the National Health Insurance to reduce the cost of medical care, especially for the poor.
- Reduce energy bills by promoting cheaper or subsidised solar power.
- Introduce measures to regulate rental prices for student ac commodation.
- Increase affordable rail and other commuter transport.
PRIORITY4
Invest in people, We will invest in South Africa’s people by improving access to quality education and health, expanding the use
of science and technology, and ensuring all people have decent housing and basic services.
ENSURE LOCAL GOVERNMENT DELIVERS
THE ANC WILL:
- National and provincial governments will be given greater responsibilities to support municipalities that struggle to provide services to communities.
- The ANC will ensure that its public representatives and deployees are held accountable for the basic services to communities that form part of their responsibilities and our 2021 Manifesto undertaking to fill critical vacancies
with qualified people. We will track implementation through the ANC Local Government Monitor and act against public representatives who are not performing, which may include their recall.
PROVIDE CLEAN WATER FOR ALL
THE ANC WILL:
- National and provincial government will be given
more powers to intervene to provide clean water, where municipalities are struggling to properly provide this service, build maintenance capacity and complete water infrastructure projects.
- Separate water services authorities from water service providers as part of efficiency improvements.
- Ensure proper planning and investment to address immediate and future sanitation needs.
- Complete in the coming five years the major dams and water schemes to ensure sustainable access to water for a growing population. These include the uMzimvubu and
uMkhomazi dams, raising of the Clanwilliam and Tzaneen dam walls, the Loskop, Pilansberg, Mandlakazi, Giyane and Tsomo water schemes, and the Olifants Management Model Water Scheme.
- Assist municipalities, through our public employment projects, to deal with fixing water leaks.
TRANSPORT
THE ANC WILL:
- Through public employment programmes fix potholes, pave roads and maintain community and rural roads, as well as other road infrastructure.
- Ensure a greater role for the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) to assist in road maintenance and extension in towns and rural areas.
- Fastrack the reinstatement of all existing passenger rail lines, provide security for rail infrastructure and passengers, and develop further passenger rail networks, including high- speed rail.
- Strengthen the taxi industry including formalisation, support taxi ownership and businesses in their industry value chains, promote commuter safety and move towards subsidisation of taxi commuters.
IMPROVE EDUCATION AND SKILLS
No society can prosper without investing in the capabilities of all its citizens. Education, health and science and technology therefore remain key areas through which the ANC pledges to continuously transform society for the better. Over the
past three decades, a comprehensive framework for the transformation of basic education, the post school education and training system, health as well as our system of innovation, have been put in place. This has been a process of great movements forward, as well as setbacks. Education and
health are now a national priority. Science, technology and innovation have been constantly placed in the centre of social and economic development. One of the key lessons learnt, is that progressive policies must be accompanied with greater attention to implementation of these policies, coordination, planning and rigorous monitoring and accountability, as well as availability and effective deployment of resources.
THE ANC WILL:
- Ensure universal access to quality early child development by 2030
- Foster a culture of reading, numeracy and technological skills.
- Expand skills development programmes in emerging fields like data analytics and artificial intelligence.
- Strengthen the post-school education and training sector through better coordination, responsiveness to labour market needs and improved quality, throughput and access.
- Expand vocational and technical training in schools and post school institutions and build additional TVET and community colleges.
- Fast track the public provision of student residences, using current expenditure on subsidies from NSFAS, to address the backlog in student accommodation.
- Offer more digital learning opportunities, invest in specialist medical training and second chance and lifelong learning opportunities.
Ensure health care for all
The ANC will:
- Promote healthy lifestyles and preventive health care campaigns.
- Move decisively towards implementing the National Health Insurance, strengthening health infrastructure, training personnel and creating a single electronic health record.
- Expand the Ideal Clinic programme to improve quality of care.
- Strengthen financial management and supply chain management in public health institutions.
- Collaborate with other countries on research and development of traditional medicine.
- Leverage new technologies like telemedicine and artificial intelligence in health care.
Use science and innovation for development
THE ANC WILL:
- Support innovation in green technologies, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and decarbonisation programmes
- Increase research and development spending and prioritise areas like industrialisation, climate change and technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, blockchain,
artificial intelligence and the internet of things.
- Foster development of new and existing industries, increase patent development and strengthen local innovation systems, including green energy technologies.
- Contribute to the African Union’s goal of producing 100,000 PhD graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the next decade.
Build more houses and provide basic services to all
THE ANC WILL:
- Continue building subsidised housing for vulnerable groups.
- Increase land availability near economic centres for youth, military veterans and seniors.
- Establish a Human Settlement Bank for affordable financing.
- Upgrade informal settlements and provide basic services.
- Strengthen regulation of rental prices and protect consumers.
- Improve access to clean water and increase bulk water infrastructure.
- Expand sanitation access through alternative technologies.
- Address challenges with wastewater treatment plants.
- Ensure safe drinking water and prevent pollution of water sources.
- Manage rapid urbanisation through a sustainable model of compact, connected cities and towns, urban and rural areas, including the development of new cities and towns.
PRIORITY5
Defend democracy and advance freedom
KEEPING OUR HOMES AND STREETS SAFE, PROTECT OUR BORDERS
THE ANC WILL:
- Take a comprehensive approach to fighting crime through the Integrated Violence and Crime Prevention Strategy.
- Modernise policing with more frontline police officers.
- Highlight the critical role of communities in preventing crime and gender-based violence through adequate resourcing of Community Policing Forums.
- Develop capabilities to combat cybercrime, essential infrastructure crimes, illegal firearms, gang violence, crime syndicates, human and drug trafficking, and corruption.
- Provide additional capacity to the Hawks to tackle organised crime.
- Implement a data-driven approach to target violent crime hotspots and direct police resources and personnel to areas with the highest crime rates.
- Strengthen the justice system, including the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), review the Criminal Procedures Act, reducing case backlogs and delays, support the
Legal Aid Board to provide fair access to justice, introduce technology to make court procedures more efficient and accessible, and strengthen the protection of whistleblowers.
- Ensure effective and humane incarceration of inmates, and, as part of a restorative justice approach, promote the rehabilitation and social reintegration of offenders.
- Act against extortion and violence in the construction sector by strengthening the SAPS Economic Infrastructure Task Teams.
- Tackle priority crimes like gang violence and cash-in-transit heists through specialised police units.
- Strengthen anti-money laundering efforts and secure South Africa’s removal from the FATF list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring.
TO END GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AND FEMICIDE (GBV), THE ANC WILL:
- Implement the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.
- Expand victim support services, like the Thuthuzela Centres and GBV desks in police stations.
- Undertake public campaigns against toxic masculinity, sexism and homophobia.
- Promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
- Promote adherence, working with trade unions and businesses, to ILO Convention 190 to eradicate violence and harassment in the workplace.
IMMIGRATION
To address the illegal immigration, the ANC will:
- Complete the overhaul of our immigration policy and systems including the Citizenship Act, Refugees Act and Immigration Act, towards a single law dealing with citizenship, immigration and refugees to prevent
contradictions and meet the new challenges facing South Africa.
- Locate refugee and asylum centres close to border post.
- Regulate employment of foreign workers in line with the National Labour Migration Policy, to give preference to South African job-seekers and act against employment and exploitation of undocumented persons.
- Simplify visa applications.
- Use technology to modernise systems to prevent fraud and bogus documents.
SUPPORT AND ASSIST MILITARY VETERANS
South Africa has a duty to appreciate and take care of its military veterans who fought against apartheid and those who went in service of the nation after 1994. The ANC will work
to ensure that every sector of society, government and business contributes to the restoration of dignity to military veterans, particularly former liberation war combatants and those who served in the army of democracy, and ensure that their gallant choice is appreciated and that their welfare and that of their loved ones is taken care of.
THE ANC WILL:
- Work together with families and National Prosecuting Authority, assist with the identification and repatriation of the remains of those who passed away in jails at home, were buried in unmarked graves and in foreign lands during the struggle against apartheid.
- Include military veterans as designated groups, facilitate their integration into the economy, assist with housing and other needs, and promote their role in nation- building, fighting crime and building social cohesion.
FIGHT CORRUPTION
Over the past five years, we have taken key measures to strengthen the state’s capability to prevent and fight corruption. As recommended by the State Capture
Commission, we are putting in place laws, institutions and practices that reduce the potential for corruption of any sort and on any scale.
Action is being taken against alleged perpetrators of state capture and funds are being recovered. To date, the NPA Investigating Directorate has taken 34 state capture and corruption cases to court, involving over 200 accused persons. Freezing orders of R14 billion have been granted, and around R8.6 billion in corrupt proceeds have been returned to the state.
The South African Revenue Service has collected R4.8 billion on matters related to the State Capture Commission.
The ANC has taken decisive measures to prevent corruption within its ranks. We have required ANC members charged in a court of law to step-aside from organisational and state responsibilities until the case is finalised. The ANC has strengthened the selection criteria for public representatives candidates, prioritising skills, educational knowledge, experience and integrity.
Over the next five years, the ANC will:
- Strengthen law enforcement agencies and other anti- corruption bodies.
- Establish the Investigating Directorate as a permanent entity within the NPA with investigating powers.
- Ensure greater accountability and prevent corruption through rigorous lifestyle audits and improved vetting procedures, real-time audits of critical projects, using artificial intelligence to improve accountability and transparency and strengthen discipline management.
- Build a social compact against corruption with law enforcement and citizens, launch public awareness campaigns to educate and encourage reporting, and support community involvement and whistle blower protection.
BUILDING THE DEVELOPMENTAL STATE
A capable, developmental and ethical state is critical to the achievement of a better life for all.
As a country, we seeks to build a developmental state shaped by the history and socio- economic dynamics of South African society, to guide national economic development and mobilise domestic and foreign capital and other social partners to achieve this goal.
It will have attributes that include: (i) capacity to intervene in the economy in the interest of higher rates of growth and sustainable development; (ii) effecting sustainable programmes that address unemployment, poverty and underdevelopment with emphasis on vulnerable groups;
(iii) and mobilising the people as a whole, especially the poor, to act as their own liberators through participatory and representative democracy.
We will continue to strengthen state institutions with technical capacity and skilled personnel and will ensure greater coordination and planning of service provision, with the active involvement of citizens. We will reduce the reliance on
outsourcing services, which has weakened the state’s capability as competencies critical for implementation are not developed in the state.
To improve the capability of the state, the ANC will:
- Strengthen planning and project implementation capabilities, improve monitoring and evaluation tools and attract, develop and retain skilled personnel across government.
- Take forward initiatives to build a professional, ethical and developmental public service.
- Advance e-government and digital services to make government services accessible, interoperable and efficient.
- Work with labour, civil society and business on social and economic initiatives.
- Increase disaster response capacity and funding.
- Improve the capacity of Parliament and legislatures to fulfil their legislative, oversight and accountability responsibilities.
- Protect judicial independence and increase access to justice.
- Support institutions that uphold democracy.
To strengthen local government, the ANC will:
- Ensure municipalities fulfil their basic obligations to citizens: fix potholes, remove refuse regularly, keep communities clean and green, provide clean water and sanitation.
- Increase infrastructure maintenance funding and human resources.
- Implement long-term planning through the District Development Model.
- Increase revenue collection and resource mobilisation, and review the sustainability and funding of local government.
- Enhance local industrialisation and job creation with specific focus on township and village economic development.
- Collaborate with traditional leadership on local development and land management.
- Strengthen cooperation with the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa).
PROMOTING NATION BUILDING AND SOCIAL COHESION
The ANC has promoted policies and programmes to heal the divisions of the past and build a socially cohesive South Africa, protecting and promoting our languages and cultural heritage. We have implemented policies that promote non-racialism and non-sexism and oppose any form of discrimination.
The programmes we have implemented in housing, education, health care and social security all contribute to building a society where everyone feels included and has the opportunity to thrive.
Over the next five years, the ANC will:
- Continue to protect and expand the social and economic gains we have achieved.
- Ensure no one is left behind and foster social cohesion.
- Strengthen support for families.
- Continuously promote and protect languages and our diverse cultures.
- Address the gender pay gap and ensure equal opportunities for all.
- Take measures to ensure the sustainability of the public broadcaster to fulfil its mandate and develop funding mechanisms to support local content and the creative industry.
- Advance a united South Africa against attempts to divide the nation and its people.
- Promote media diversity and
- Fight cyber bullying, fake news and promote mindful use of social media.
^l- Promote moral regeneration and the values Ubuntu.
- Protect our national sovereignty and national security as a nation.
Transformation led by Honest, Dedicated and Capable Leaders
The challenges of our struggle for a better life for all are difficult and diverse and require honest, capable and dedicated leaders.
The hardship and suffering of many has led them to believe that ANC leaders care only about themselves, that we are soft on corruption, and that we do not care about the suffering of ordinary people. We admit we made mistakes as the ANC, with some members and leaders undermining institutions of the democratic state and advancing selfish personal interests.
Now the ANC is working hard to restore trust and confidence as leader of the National Democratic Revolution and the fundamental socio-economic transformation of our society. At its last two national conferences the ANC vowed to more effectively to address society’s challenges, conduct its affairs in line with its core values and renew the movement so it can continue to serve and lead the people.
We are now raising the intellectual capacity and enhancing the moral and ethical orientation of our membership.
The living embodiment of a renewed ANC will be members who show exemplary conduct in society by upholding the core values and principles of selfless public service, discipline and integrity.
PRIORITY6
Build a better Africa and World
Our international relations policy is defined by one of the founding principles of the Freedom Charter, that There shall be Peace and Friendship.
Democratic South Africa plays an active role in the African agenda, a peaceful, just and multilateral world, human rights, gender equality and social justice, and the eradication of poverty and underdevelopment.
Over the three decades since democracy, with other African states and institutions we lobbied for debt write-off, hosted the launch of both the African Union in 2002 and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in 2015, contributed to peace in all regions, work together in the fight against HIV/ AIDS, Ebola and COVID19 and for the implementation of the AU Agenda 2063 to create a continent that is peaceful, integrated, democratic and prosperous. Africa’s regeneration and renaissance has always occupied a central place in our international relations.
During this period South Africa, became a country of choice in hosting mega events like United Nation, AU, SADC Summits, sports extravaganza like the rugby, football, cricket, netball and other world cups as well as music, investment and tourism events. We joined and hosted BRICS Summits and will host the G20 Summit in 2025.Through these events, millions of people come to our country and assist in creating much needed jobs. We also build road infrastructure, rail, expanded our airports, build stadiums and hotels and created even more jobs.
South Africa continues to support, advocate and work for the right of self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, and a peaceful resolution to the conflict, based on African Union and United Nations resolutions.
South Africa in 2023 took the unprecedented step to take the apartheid State of Israel to the International Court of Justice for its genocide against the Palestinian people. The solidarity with the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination is not only about Peace and Friendship with an oppressed people, but about the ongoing struggle for a just and peaceful world order.
Over the next five years, the ANC will continue to:
- Strengthen the implementation of the African Union’s flagship African Continental Free Trade Area, promote cross-border infrastructure, tourism, agriculture, and manufacturing value chains through industrialization and minerals beneficiation in the region, and increase the levels of South African manufacturing and value-added exports to the rest of the continent.
- Promote greater peace, security, democracy and socio- economic development in SADC and other parts of
the continent, including the right to self-determination of the Saharawi peoples, strengthening the effectiveness
of the African Union Peace and Security and Governance Architectures and the role of women and youth in peacebuilding, socio-economic development and towards silencing the guns.
- Increase the voice of developing countries in the United Nations and other multilateral institutions, promoting peace, security and development, South-South and North- South cooperation through BRICS, the G20, the Non- Aligned Movement and other forums, and push for reform of the global systems of governance, including the UN Security Council.
- Advance progressive internationalism and solidarity with the peoples of Palestine, Western Sahara, Cuba and others.
- Recommit South Africa to work with others to take forward its responsibilities in the fight against climate change, global poverty and inequality in line with applicable international resolutions.
- Strengthen the country’s development cooperation architecture and institutional frameworks to tackle development challenges in Africa and the global South through the United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
- Ensure that our policies on regional integration and cooperation cover the movement of goods and people, and resolve the issue of undocumented immigration, addressing its root causes.
- Expand and deepen our trade and investment relations with both developing and developed economies in line with the National Development Plan.
Our approach to implementing this Manifesto aims to bridge the gap between manifesto commitments and concrete action. By embedding the manifesto in core government planning and allocating resources accordingly, the ANC aims to achieve its goals of poverty eradication, reduced inequality and decreased unemployment.
However, the success of this approach hinges on effective planning and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and timely corrective measures to ensure accountability and deliver tangible results.
The ANC plans to ensure the manifesto translates into tangible results through a three-pronged approach: mainstreaming, prioritisation and accountability.
PLANNING AND MAINSTREAMING
We will:
- Develop an ANC Manifesto Implementation Plan with clear outcome targets.
- Ensure the Manifesto’s commitments and targets are deeply integrated into existing government systems across all spheres of government, based on the District Development Model.
- Base the 2024-2029 Medium-Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), which outlines national priorities, on the Manifesto’s goals.
- Allocate resources in the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) based on the plan’s priorities.
- Individual ministers, premiers and provincial MECs will have performance agreements tied to implementing specific manifesto points.
PRIORITISATION
We will ensure that:
- All government departments and public entities, both at national and provincial levels, will incorporate the manifesto into their own five-year and annual plans and budgets.
- Each entity dedicates resources and efforts to specific manifesto goals.
ACCOUNTABILITY
We will ensure that:
- Regular monitoring and evaluation are in place to
track progress toward achieving manifesto commitments. This involves gathering data, assessing performance and identifying areas where adjustments are needed.
- Based on these evaluations, corrective interventions will be implemented to ensure progress and hold government and ANC deployees accountable for delivering on commitments.
- A dedicated ANC website is created to report on a regular basis on progress in implementing this Manifesto.
The achievement of freedom in 1994, and the progress and challenges we faced over the last 30 years, we did together.
The ANC calls on women, youth, rural, urban, business, labour, faith-based organisations, civil society, traditional leaders, taxi associations, the LGBTQI+, people with disabilities, the middle strata, intellectuals, military veterans, students, our diaspora, sports, arts and cultural workers, traditional healers, to join us to defend and advance our freedom, so that together we can do more as active citizens of our beloved South Africa.
The ANC government through this Manifesto seeks to ensure the country is back on track to meet the aspirations of the National Development Plan.
It should, as we move towards 2030, develop a vision and plan towards 2055, when we celebrate a Centenary since the adoption of the historic Freedom Charter and the 1954 Women’s Charter.
African National Congress Headquarters, Luthuli House 54 Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Street, Johannesburg, 2001
Issued by the ANC, 24 February 2024
