Cape Town -
The ANC in the Western Cape has started consulting voters to help develop its manifesto for next year’s general elections.
Nationwide the party has embarked on similar public gatherings before the 2014 elections, with its final manifesto to be adopted by the party’s national executive committee next month.
The ANC in the province held the first of its manifesto forums in the Boland region at the weekend.
Provincial chairman Marius Fransman said the campaign was centred on what the people of the province wanted.
Describing as “fruitful” the party’s public engagement in Pniel in the Boland, Fransman said the party would embark on a similar meeting on the West Coast on Thursday.
“Boland residents raised issues of job creation, housing, unemployment and land being sold off to big developers as their main concerns,” he said.
Fransman said the ANC would celebrate 20 years of democracy next year.
The provincial party structures would spend the next three months getting in touch with rural and urban communities and other party structures and alliances to hear what people believed should be included the national agenda, he said.
“These forums are key to the ANC taking back the province. That is why it is important to engage with the public on issues of service delivery. This is how we ensure that people at grassroots level are part of the ANC’s planning on government policy.”
Fransman said they were also planning events with NGOs to discuss issues of social cohesion, identity and culture.
“We must help to put a chapter in the manifesto on identity and culture.
“We’ve picked up that the DA in the province does not recognise the Khoisan people, and we need to ensure that this is changed.”
The ANC also wants the issues of sanitation, service delivery and the economy to be included in the manifesto.
Fransman called on members of the public to contact the ANC’s election office or him personally with suggestions on what they believed the ANC should put in the manifesto.
The party’s election manifesto is to be adopted by the ANC’s national executive committee next month.
The manifesto is to be made public in January.
On the DA’s election front, the party began the week with a visit to the Southern Cape as part of its Masisebenze campaign, in which it is evaluating DA best practice and building on its successes.
DA provincial leader Ivan Meyer and Community Safety MEC Dan Plato and Finance, Economic Development and Tourism MEC Alan Winde visited Knysnaon Monday.
Winde addressed the local business community, while Meyer inspected sports facilities in Knysna.
In Sedgefield, Meyer addressed DA supporters and encouraged voters to register.
“The DA is continuing its pre-campaigning activities every week, canvassing unregistered voters and making sure all eligible voters register with the Independent Electoral Commission,” the party said.
Cape Argus