ANC report admits party has failed

An ANC supporter holds a flag of the ANC while the President Jacob Zuma addresses ANC Gauteng Cadre Assembly in Pretoria. Picture: Phill Magakoe

An ANC supporter holds a flag of the ANC while the President Jacob Zuma addresses ANC Gauteng Cadre Assembly in Pretoria. Picture: Phill Magakoe

Published Jan 27, 2014

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Johannesburg - The ANC has conceded it has dismally failed to meet its own delivery targets for the five years up to this year on rooting out corruption, reducing unemployment, and narrowing the gap between the poor and the rich.

However, the ruling party said it made significant progress in improving education and healthcare, especially in the matric results and the reduction of HIV/Aids.

It had also exceeded its target in youth employment, education and training.

These are among the findings of party’s internal draft report on its implementation of government priorities between 2009 and this year.

Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane presented the report at the ANC’s lekgotla on Friday, a few days before the party consolidates its nomination list for the election candidates.

The party had, in its 2009 election manifesto, identified the fight against crime and corruption, the creation of decent work, education, healthcare and rural development, food security and land reform as its five key priorities for the next five years. This year’s election manifesto has stuck to these priority areas.

Titled the “Close-out Report on the Implementation of Government Priorities for 2009-2014”, the 162-page document, seen by The Star, was presented to a workshop last month.

It is to be tabled before the cabinet lekgotla.

For all its intention to clamp down on corruption and face the fifth democratic elections with a cleaner image, the ANC appears to have an uphill battle in curbing this malady.

Of the 100 people with assets of R5 million obtained through corruption that the party had targeted to convict by this year, only 41 have been successfully convicted.

About 790 people are under investigation, while freezing orders with assets estimated to be valued at R1.3 billion have been obtained.

The ANC’s own rating has highlighted this crucial target as “not achieved”.

The report identified “slow reporting”, “identification of cases that meet the target criterion” of having R5m assets, and inadequate skilled investigators as among the problems hindering progress in cracking down on fraudsters.

Other impediments listed include unco-operative witnesses, criminal investigations being hampered by suspects who remain in office after being charged, and lack of finalisation of complex cases.

The report further shows the ANC’s target on employment is “not likely to be achieved”.

“Unemployment has not improved significantly since 2009 because the number of job-seekers entering the labour market has been increasing and our economy has not been able to absorb existing and new entrants fast enough,” the report states.

ANC national spokesman Keith Khoza on Sunday refused to comment. “I will not comment on a document that was not released officially,” he said.

And while the report shows that the party has achieved relative successes in rural development and food security, it says the ANC equally failed to meet its targets on reducing unemployment in the rural areas.

It recorded a paltry 47.6 percent of its delivery agreement target of 60 percent.

The party blamed this on the “slow rate of overall national economic growth, inadequate progress with smallholder farm development and lack of growing in employment in commercial agricultural sector”, among others.

Significant strides had been made in improving education, especially with the matric results and the foundation phase. Curriculum coverage and school infrastructure remained problem areas.

The death of a six-year-old Limpopo boy, Michael Komape, who fell into a pit latrine last week, has been seen as a symptom of poor supply of school infrastructure by the government.

The party’s ratings for both learner support material and school infrastructure indicated that the target was “not likely to be achieved”.

The ANC recorded significant achievements in healthcare, either exceeding its target in areas such as maternal and child health and life expectancy, or “likely to achieve” in the reduction of HIV/Aids and TB infection levels.

However, it said it was unlikely to achieve its target on quality healthcare.

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