SACP says: Vote ANC!
Tomorrow, let us all go out in our numbers to defend the national democratic revolution on the ballot, by voting for the ANC!
Let us press on towards the achievement of a completely non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa in which there is a better life for all, by voting for the ANC!
Let us vote for the ANC for the sterling leadership role it has played in leading our liberation struggle and, together with its allies and millions of our people, defeating apartheid in a democratic breakthrough in 1994!
Let us all go out in our numbers to vote for the ANC for the many advances we have achieved since 1994! Among other important achievements, the ANC-led Alliance government has built over 3.3 million houses - benefiting more than 16 million people, expanded electricity to over 12 million households - 7 million more than in 1994, and expanded access to potable water to around 92% of our people - compared to 60% in 1996.
Particularly in the past five years, the President Zuma ANC-led Alliance administration has laid down the basis for an advance to the radical second phase of South Africa's democratic transformation:
Health
Already people in South Africa are living longer, and the number of children born with HIV has declined drastically. This is thanks to the President Jacob Zuma ANC-led Alliance administration, particularly the implementation of a decisive a HIV treatment programme. As the October 2013 Joint Review of HIV, TB and Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV, conducted by the government in conjunction with international bodies such as the World Health Organisation shows:
"...the country had made impressive strides in the implementation of HIV, TB and PMTCT [Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV] programmes during the period since the previous reviews were conducted in 2009".
The report further states that:
"The impact of these efforts is also beginning to show in declining numbers of new HIV infections, TB infections and low rates of new infections in children. HIV and TB mortality is declining, with a corresponding decline in all natural cause mortality..."
Indeed, in the three years following the general election in 2009 the number of people receiving HIV treatment increased four-fold. Now every women giving birth in South Africa is screened for the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV.
The ANC-led Alliance policy of the National Health Insurance, which our government is already piloting, will provide comprehensive and quality universal healthcare for all in South Africa once in full swing.
For this radical programme to be completed we must vote ANC!
Training of doctors
All of our provinces except the Western Cape which is led by the DA - the so-called democratic alliance - are annually giving scholarships to students from needy households to study medicine in Cuba, which has one of the best health systems in the world. The DA cares only about the rich. It does not care about the poor, their health and wellbeing. Neither does it care about the shortage of health professionals which mostly affects the poor who cannot afford the exorbitant, profit-driven private health services exchange. That is why the DA prevents young people from poor families from obtaining education in healthcare. Tomorrow, on May 7th, let us defeat this arrogant party of white privilege and monopoly capital.
Let us resoundingly vote ANC to train more doctors and press ahead to universal quality healthcare for all.
Education
The Freedom Charter says:
"Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children; Higher education and technical training shall be opened to all by means of state allowances and scholarships awarded on the basis of merit".
We have almost completed implementing this section of the Freedom Charter on basic education through policies such as No-fee Paying Schools and fee exemption for the poor in fee paying schools, School Feeding Schemes and the free provision of learning and teaching materials. National Senior Certificate results have greatly improved over the past five years.
The most dramatic improvement has been in higher education and training. The National Student Financial Aid Scheme benefiting students from working class and poor households, awarded on the basis of merit, has, since its inception benefitted over 1.4 million students, most of whom being first graduates in their family history. By 2014 the expansion of the scheme resulted in doubling the number of university students from just under 500 thousand in 1994 to approaching 1 million. The number of students who are Africans in universities has hugely improved, reaching 66% in 2010, from only 49% in 1995.
We have now opened two new universities post-apartheid, one in Mpumalanga and another in the Northern Cape, and will forge ahead in redefining the landscape of universities and colleges to expand access. In the next five years the ANC-led Alliance government will build additional 12 new Vocational Education and Training college campuses, mostly in rural areas.
Previously, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme did not cover colleges. Now it does, and, in addition, making access to colleges virtually free for eligible students based on merit. This resulted in college enrolments doubling from just over 345 thousand in 2010 to nearly 700 thousand in 2014.
The SACP says, tomorrow, 7th May, let us vote ANC to continue opening the doors of learning and culture by expanding access to the historically oppressed and previously disadvantaged.
The SACP calls on workers to vote ANC - but not with a blank cheque.
The working class must support the ANC-led Alliance government by remaining at the forefront of our political struggle and socio-economic emancipation to consolidate progress made in the last twenty years of our democracy. Particularly in the last five years, the President Zuma ANC-led Alliance government:
• opposed privatisation, because of working class and SACP struggles within the Alliance itself;
• rescued the auto sector in our country through public investment of R22 billion in 183 projects, preserving 46 thousand jobs and adding nearly ten thousand more jobs;
• led interventions in other industrial sectors including clothing and textiles, imposing a 75 percent local procurement requirement on the public sector;
• driven an economic and social infrastructure programme, committing R1 trillion of public spending as a key counter-cyclical intervention in the midst of the gravest global economic crisis since the 1930s;
• ensured that the 1 million jobs lost as a result of the crisis are regained, and further increased employment to the highest ever by 5 million people with a total of over 14 million now working;
• introduced the removal of adverse credit information, which came into effect on April 1st, impacting on some 10 million South Africans suffocated by mashonisas and high bank charges.
• in the face of DA opposition, re-opened the lodgement of land claims, to address the plight of millions of the landless and land hungry
• provided work opportunities to 4.5 million unemployed South Africans through Expanded Public Works and Community Work programmes.
The SACP says, tomorrow, 7th May, let us deliver a decisive blow to the arrogant party of white privilege - the DA - by voting resoundingly for the ANC. The DA, this party of racist economic and political exploitation has turned its eyes blind on the progress made under the President Zuma ANC-led Alliance administration.
In the last five years South Africa did not move backwards as the DA would like us to believe. On the contrary, South Africa has actually moved forward. Together, working with the ANC-led Alliance, led us continue moving South Africa forward, by voting for the ANC and continuing to be politically active to defend and advance our revolution.
The SACP says workers unite, vote ANC!
Statement issued by the SACP, May 6 2014
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