ANC STATEMENT ON TREVOR MANUEL'S "THREE WASTED DECADES"
The African National Congress (ANC) is deeply concerned by the utterances attributed to Trevor Manuel, former NEC member who was also the longest serving Minister of Finance post-apartheid. Manuel is quoted by News24 as having referred to the ANC's period in office since 1994 as "almost three decades that were wasted".
Manuel is said to have made these remarks on Thursday the 20th August 2020 during a webinar discussion hosted by Catholic Parliamentary Liason Office and the Hanns Siedel Foundation.
While we respect Manuel's right to freedom of speech, we believe that there is absolutely no basis to portray a doom-laden picture of the country to the media and to the outside world. We are painfully aware of an ongoing onslaught against our movement being desperately choreographed on various social media platforms and urge Manuel not to fall into this trap.
Taken at face value Manuel's utterances could loosely imply that the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality started in 1994. The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) as well as other economic interventions were precisely aimed at placing our economy and society on a sustained developmental trajectory. Since the democratic breakthrough of 1994, the people of South Africa have entrusted the ANC government with the responsibility to transform the economy and to create a better life for all.
Since 1994, the quality of life of South Africans has shown tremendous improvement. For example, we have expanded access to clean drinking water, housing, education, social security and improved quality of health care services to the majority of South Africans. We have also increase literacy levels of South Africans.