Johannesburg - The newly-elected ANC NEC must act with demonstrable urgency in addressing the shortcomings, setbacks, and reversals that threaten to undermine and erode democratic gains.
This was stated by ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula, who delivered the declaration adopted by the party's 55th National Elective Conference, which took place in Gauteng from December 16 to 20, 2022, and in Mangaung, Free State, on January 5, 2023, in the early hours of today.
Mbalula said these include chronic poor economic performance and the resultant high rate of unemployment, poverty, and inequalities; rising lawlessness, criminality, and violence.
The country has been plunged into darkness over the last year as power utility Eskom implemented load shedding for over 220 days and counting.
On Thursday, Eskom announced that it was implementing stage 4 load shedding, and this morning it will be implementing stage 3 load shedding until Sunday, the day when party President Cyril Ramaphosa will be addressing South Africans during the movement’s 111th anniversary celebrations in the decided province of the Free State.
Eskom said this was due to the delays in returning seven generating units to service.
"The ANC-led government must move decisively to implement conference resolutions to end load shedding and stabilise electricity supply. Priority must be given to speeding up the resolution of the energy crisis, in particular undertaking critical maintenance at Eskom so we return existing generation capacity to reliable service," Mbalula said.
Another challenge the country is facing is the high rate of unemployment, especially among the youth.
Currently, the unemployment rate stands at 33.56%; the official unemployment rate was 33.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022.
"We must transform and grow the economy so that it creates jobs and empowers Africans in particular and blacks in general, particularly the youth, women, and people who live in townships and rural areas."
"We must introduce new measures to cut red tape and ensure small enterprises, co-operatives, and informal businesses, particularly those owned by women and young people, have effective means of raising finances and accessing markets."
"We call on the government to prioritise unlocking the potential of the country’s land for employment, rural development, food security, and economic development. We must do more to bring underutilised land into production and enable the state to acquire agricultural land for purposes of distribution to previously disadvantaged persons," Mbalula said.
He also said the conference supports the continuation of the social relief of distress grant while the government investigates the modalities and affordability of the basic income grant.
The Star