PRETORIA, April 16 – Unemployment levels, particularly among the youth, is a major concern for the African National Congress, President Jacob Zuma said on Saturday.
“It is of concern to the ANC that many of our people, especially the youth, are sitting at home doing nothing because the economy is not growing fast enough to create much needed jobs,” Zuma said at the launch of the ANC’s August 3 local government elections manifesto at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth.
“Our country, our continent, and the world are experiencing slow economic growth,” he said.
“[However] The ANC has a concrete plan in place to respond to the slow growth and create jobs. Our municipalities, guided by the National Development Plan, will place job creation and sustainable livelihoods at the centre of their local economic programmes.
“At the national level, a nine-point plan is being implemented by the ANC government to boost economic growth and job creation in various sectors, such as the oceans economy, agriculture, mining, the energy sector, information and technology, water and sanitation, and tourism among others.”
Zuma said the ANC was aware that some communities were aggrieved by their representatives’ performance.
“We have also heard the call for councillors to be more visible and accessible. We have thus ensured that our councillors hold reportback and feedback meetings with their communities and will continue to improve on this. In cases where some ANC councillors did not perform well, we encouraged communities to hold them accountable and report their concerns,” he said.
“We have acted on these concerns by replacing some councillors and strengthening others. Going forward, we will require councillors to sign performance and accountability agreements.”
He said in rural communities, ANC councilors would be working together with traditional leaders “as partners in development”.
“We will also ensure that all communities participate in municipal programmes and activities and are part of governing their communities and municipalities.”
Corrupt ANC officials, even at municipal level, would be held accountable.
“At the municipal level, in the next five years, we will ensure that all ANC councillors abide by the ANC’s code of conduct. The ANC will prevent municipal officials and councillors and their immediate family members from doing business with municipalities,” Zuma said.
“The ANC will ensure the implementation of recommendations emanating from forensic investigations conducted in municipalities. The ANC will hold corrupt municipal officials and councillors liable for the losses incurred by the municipality as a result of their corrupt actions.”
Zuma said that under the ANC-led government great strides had been made in fighting crime and corruption.
“Progress is being made in the fight against crime and corruption. A total of 234 government officials were arrested, tried, and convicted for corruption-related offences since 2014,” he said.
“Orders were obtained to freeze assets gained through wrongful means to the value of R601 million during the 2015/2016 financial year. Government has recovered a total of R4 billion since 2009. The anti-fraud and anti-corruption programmes continue,” Zuma said.
African News Agency
* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.