South Africa’s ruling party will do better if it wins the forthcoming local government elections and will target job creation and better service delivery over the next five years, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.
Speaking at the launch of the African National Congress (ANC)’s municipal elections manifesto in Pretoria Monday night, Ramaphosa admitted that the party had made mistakes in the past and pledged to do better.
He said the party has not always chosen the best people to run government institutions or been responsive to people’s needs, and has not done enough to hold its officials accountable.
“This evening we pledge to you the people of South Africa, that we will do better, much better than we have done in the past. This is a pledge — and this is what we dedicate ourselves to you on,” he said.
He added: “We have not always done the best that we were meant to do. And we have not only done the best that we were capable of doing. Yes, we stand here and admit that we have made mistakes.”
Ramaphosa promised that job creation would be the ANC’s priority should it be voted to run the municipalities – and pledged that his party would do away with labour brokers in delivering “essential local government functions.”
He said his party would prioritise creating job opportunities for the youth who are entering the work space for the first time “at a much faster rate” than ever before.
“It is our intention to ensure that skills development programmes are more closely aligned to the job opportunities and economic development programmes in communities,” he said.
He added that the ANC, in its efforts to create jobs and sustainable livelihoods, it will also seek to end the outsourcing of essential service, which would mean ending labour brokering in municipalities.
Ramaphosa said improving the provision of water and electricity would be high on the agenda of the ANC-led local governments within the next five years.
During his campaign trail in the past few days, Ramaphosa was confronted by angry communities over water and electricity.
All these problems would be addressed in the next five years, he said.
NM/jn/APA