By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa says that there is nothing he can do but “note” Jacob Zuma’s scheduled announcement.
This comes after the Zuma Foundation announced that its patron will address the media on Saturday regarding his political future.
Ramaphosa responded to questions about the ruling party’s renewal process and the reaction of the party’s veterans, including Zuma, who may announce his exit from the party.
He said that there was nothing he could do about Zuma’s announcement but to “note”, We will note that, we note that. What else can I do? There’s nothing else I can do but to note,” said Ramaphosa.
He was speaking to the media at the conclusion of the 2019 ANC Manifesto review process in Ekurhuleni.
Ramaphosa has rubbished suggestions that the party has not done enough to improve the lives of South Africans in the last 29 years.
The review forms part of the ANC’s efforts to give a report on the progress made in fulfilling its mandates and promises that were announced in the run-up to the last general elections.
Ramaphosa said while he acknowledges the party’s setbacks – he will no longer tolerate blatant lies created to tarnish the ANC’s image.
“There are lies, the biggest being that nothing has happened since 1994 and that apartheid was even better than what we are going through now. And we know that that is a blatant lie. Once again the facts themselves from various independent institutions, including the recent census, confirms that there has been tremendous progress.”
Ramaphosa said they will replicate the Gauteng government’s mass employment programme in all provinces and municipalities. This will create thousands of jobs for South Africans.
The crisis at Transnet was a major sticking point, and this has impacted the freight logistics company’s balance sheet and the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Mining companies have also been affected by the crisis in rail networks and ports.
Ramaphosa said they need to deal with the issue of the crisis at Transnet.
“We are now dealing with logistics, where our logistics sector has almost collapsed. But through the roadmap that was recently adopted by Cabinet we are now going to reconfigure, repackage, and strengthen that logistics so that as our trains move from as far afield as Lephalale and as far afield as Kathu to Saldanha Bay, we should be assured that our rail works well and our road work is excellent. All that is going to be better managed,” said Ramaphosa.
However, he said in his Sona next year he will deal with the issue of infrastructure.
He said investment in infrastructure projects has been declining over the years, but they will now ramp it up.
We have built capacity to confront all these setbacks, especially in a number of areas. When it comes to infrastructure, we have built capacity. There have been a number of challenges. Our investment in infrastructure has been going down over the years. We now know how best to take it up again. We have come to a good realisation of how to fund the infrastructure.
“I was walking around with (Premier) Zamani Saul in the Northern Cape, and he says to me, comrade president, there are informal settlements mushrooming all over, and if we went with the budget that we have, it will take us 50 years to get rid of all the informal settlements.
“We spoke and postulated about that, but then I said we can forward fund these. We can build them now, take them out now, and do forward funding. That mechanism has now been embraced in government, and as we go to Sona next year, we will be outlining precisely the big, hairy projects that we are going to embark upon because we have solved a fundamental problem of money, “said Ramaphosa.
He said they will replicate the Gauteng provincial government’s mass employment programme to address the problem of unemployment.
Meanwhile Chairperson of the party’s electoral committee Kgalema Motlanthe said members who want to represent the party in Parliament and provincial legislatures after next year’s general elections will now require a post-matric qualification or the relevant expertise.
The party recently tightened the criteria for those who want to serve as ANC public representatives in provincial and national government.
The ANC is in the process of candidate selection for comrades who raised their hands to be selected as premier candidates, representatives in provincial legislatures, and members of parliament.
They will now be barred from being nominated if they have been found guilty of any kind of misconduct by the party’s internal disciplinary committee.
Motlanthe expanded further on the new requirements.
“The candidates must have no criminal record or charges brought by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), and this of course excludes political crimes committed before 1994.”
The ANC will conclude the nomination process for public representatives in January 2024.
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Video Courtesy of MYANC.