All about…

• Whichever way the 29 May 2024 elections go, the ANC will emerge as the largest party. Its manifesto is, therefore, influential;
• It promises prescribed assets, universal access to early childhood education, and 2.5 million state work opportunities.

Basic income, grants and social policy

• Increase the Social Relief of Distress grant so it becomes a basic income grant over time;
• Strengthen the quality of services for older citizens;
• More subsidised housing for vulnerable people.

Crime and corruption

• More police;
• Adequate resourcing of community policing forums;
• Priority area policing through data analysis;
• Strengthen economic infrastructure task teams;
• Strengthen the National Prosecuting Authority, review the Criminal Procedure Act and support the Legal Aid Board;
• Strengthen whistle-blower protection;
• Ensure South Africa’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force watchlist;
• A social compact against corruption; make the Investigating Directorate a permanent body.

Economy

• Protect the steel industry;
• Industrialisation as a driver of growth;
• Implement export taxes on critical minerals;
• Expand the black industrialist programme to support 2,000 companies;
• Introduce measures relating to prescribed retirement assets and investment funds to support national economic goals. “Engage and direct financial institutions to invest a portion of their funds in industrialisation, infrastructure development and the economy, through prescribed assets.”;
• Align fiscal and monetary policy with national goals – the Reserve Bank sets monetary policy;
• Develop an ecosystem of state banks in national, provincial and economic sectors, including a Human Settlement Bank;
• Start a sovereign wealth fund.

Education

• Universal early childhood education by 2030;
• Expand skills development in emerging fields such as data analytics and artificial intelligence;
• Expand vocational and technical training;
• Build student residences using National Student Financial Aid Scheme funds.

Food

• VAT exemption on more foodstuffs and essentials;
• Support community gardens through land reform;
• Ensure the minimum wage increases with inflation.

Global policy

• Africa-focused – to strengthen the African Continental Free Trade Area;
• Solidarity and internationalism with the people of Palestine, Western Sahara, Cuba and others;
• Try to balance support for regional integration and free movement of people protocols with tighter migration laws.

Governance

• Insource services that have been outsourced;
• Greater coordination and planning of service ­provision, with involvement of citizens;
• Strengthen central planning;
• Ensure municipalities fulfil their obligations to fix potholes, remove refuse, keep communities clean and green, provide clean water and sanitation.

Jobs

• Create 2.5 million state-funded work opportunities in delivering public goods and services;
• Target one million work opportunities for township and village small enterprises, entrepreneurs and co-ops.

Land

• More effectively use provisions in constitutional and expropriation legislation to accelerate land reform.

Migration

• Tighten migration control while promising visa reform;
• Measures to stop “irregular and illegal migration”, and to move refugee centres closer to border posts;
• Give preference to South African jobseekers, and act against employment and exploitation of undocumented persons.

National Health Insurance (NHI)

• Implement NHI over five years;
• Expand the “ideal clinic” plan;
• Strengthen financial and supply chain management.

Power cuts

• Support cheaper and subsidised solar power;
• Prioritise green technologies, energy efficiency, waste management, climate-smart agriculture and infrastructure, and “eco-friendly” production;
• Become a world player in green hydrogen, battery and electric vehicle production;
• Prioritise investment in the transmission grid;
• Develop gas, nuclear and hydropower projects;
• Establish a national oil company for refineries.

Professionalisation of civil service

• “South Africa requires honest, capable and dedicated leaders”;
• “The hardship and suffering of many have 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”;
• “We are now raising the intellectual capacity and enhancing the moral and ethical orientation of our membership.”

Reality check

• Because the ANC is the governing party, it’s easy to assess the likelihood of its promises being successful. The prognosis could be better;
• Some reforms in energy, logistics and the National Prosecuting Authority are in early harvest. Still, more are needed to make a national dent in our load shedding and economic crises;
• The party – on the skids, according to all national polls – resisted the urge of populism in its manifesto promises;
• It is a good thing that this is a continuity manifesto of existing policies and ideas.

What’s good?

• A focus on water gives responsibilities (rights) to provincial and national governments to ensure better water supply – water shedding is outstripping load shedding as a national point of pain;
• A promise of universal access to early childhood education is essential;
• The science underpinning the 2.5 million youth employment plan is well documented (but at a bud­geted R7.5-billion over three years, it is costly). DM

Read more about other party manifestos, and more, in Daily Maverick: 2024 elections

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R29.