Create jobs or lose out
11 January 2009, 10:39
By Christelle Terreblanche, Sibusiso Ngalwa, Moshoeshoe Monare and Deon de Lange
The ANC intends to use the government's multibillion-rand state tenders to force companies to create jobs.
It also wants to punish those who use casual labour and put an end to corruption and jobs for pals.
Flexing its muscles before more than 80 000 supporters, the ANC on Saturday launched its election manifesto in East London, in a region widely considered to be the stronghold of its rival party, the Congress of the People (COPE).
The ANC, having failed to create the jobs it promised in the past three elections, will now target the recipients of state tenders and large contracts to ensure that they create "decent work".
Zwelinzima Vavi, the Cosatu general secretary, told ANC supporters on Saturday that some hotel workers had been on casual contracts for 18 years. For this reason the federation supported the ANC manifesto.
Jacob Zuma, the ANC president, delivered the manifesto ahead of what will be the toughest elections yet for the party. They are likely to be held in April
Jeff Radebe, the head of ANC policy and the minister of transport, told The Sunday Independent this week that the government would change policies to make sure that the companies it did business with would create jobs.
And if the need arose, it might even make those policies law, he said.
"When all the implementation is in place [and] if need be we will look at that [the possibility of making it into law]," he said.
The ANC said the tenders, which were essential to its employment strategy and had been the primary cause of government corruption, should be clean.
Zuma said that the ANC "will step up measures in the fight against corruption within its ranks and the state".
"This will include measures to review the tendering system, to ensure that ANC members in business, public servants and elected representatives do not abuse the state for corrupt practices."
The ANC is promising to expand infrastructure by spending more, but it wants "decent jobs" to be guaranteed. Gwede Mantashe, the ANC secretary-general, admitted this week that the R400-billion infrastructure spending and public works programme - the mainstay of its 2004 manifesto - had failed to create permanent jobs.
Service delivery and competence have also dented the ANC's performance in the past 15 years.
Zuma said the party would be tough on incompetent public servants and would not "deploy or employ friends".
The ANC manifesto does not dwell much on crime, but reiterates its promise to reduce violent crime by up to 10 percent a year and to overhaul the criminal justice system.
More radical and expensive promises include free education for poor undergraduate students, to ensure that 60 percent of all public schools are free and to increase teachers' salaries on the "non-negotiable" condition that they are punctual, teach properly and "stop abusing learners".
The ANC also wants everyone to have access to health care, including in private hospitals, through a publicly funded national insurance system.
To massive applause from supporters, voters were promised that the child support grant would be extended to cover all up to the age of 18. This was part of an expensive social security net to cater for the unemployed and poor.
Zuma did not attach a price tag to the manifesto, but ANC leaders privately admit, to allay fears of a tax hike, that it would be too costly to implement.
Among the ways the party intends cushioning the poor from the global economic crisis is a "mass scale" emergency food relief programme to the poorest households and a "food-for-all programme" that would see basic food being made available to needy communities at affordable prices.
Zuma also announced emergency social development measures such as soup kitchens and a distress grant to those in dire need.
On the contentious issue of black economic empowerment, Zuma vigorously defended black employment equity and affirmative action and said the policy had led to the emergence of 2,6 million middle-class black people over the past 15 years.
"We will continue to advance these progressive policies," he said.
The ANC intends to use the government's multibillion-rand state tenders to force companies to create jobs.
It also wants to punish those who use casual labour and put an end to corruption and jobs for pals.
Flexing its muscles before more than 80 000 supporters, the ANC on Saturday launched its election manifesto in East London, in a region widely considered to be the stronghold of its rival party, the Congress of the People (COPE).
The ANC, having failed to create the jobs it promised in the past three elections, will now target the recipients of state tenders and large contracts to ensure that they create "decent work".
Zwelinzima Vavi, the Cosatu general secretary, told ANC supporters on Saturday that some hotel workers had been on casual contracts for 18 years. For this reason the federation supported the ANC manifesto.
Jacob Zuma, the ANC president, delivered the manifesto ahead of what will be the toughest elections yet for the party. They are likely to be held in April
Jeff Radebe, the head of ANC policy and the minister of transport, told The Sunday Independent this week that the government would change policies to make sure that the companies it did business with would create jobs.
And if the need arose, it might even make those policies law, he said.
"When all the implementation is in place [and] if need be we will look at that [the possibility of making it into law]," he said.
The ANC said the tenders, which were essential to its employment strategy and had been the primary cause of government corruption, should be clean.
Zuma said that the ANC "will step up measures in the fight against corruption within its ranks and the state".
"This will include measures to review the tendering system, to ensure that ANC members in business, public servants and elected representatives do not abuse the state for corrupt practices."
The ANC is promising to expand infrastructure by spending more, but it wants "decent jobs" to be guaranteed. Gwede Mantashe, the ANC secretary-general, admitted this week that the R400-billion infrastructure spending and public works programme - the mainstay of its 2004 manifesto - had failed to create permanent jobs.
Service delivery and competence have also dented the ANC's performance in the past 15 years.
Zuma said the party would be tough on incompetent public servants and would not "deploy or employ friends".
The ANC manifesto does not dwell much on crime, but reiterates its promise to reduce violent crime by up to 10 percent a year and to overhaul the criminal justice system.
More radical and expensive promises include free education for poor undergraduate students, to ensure that 60 percent of all public schools are free and to increase teachers' salaries on the "non-negotiable" condition that they are punctual, teach properly and "stop abusing learners".
The ANC also wants everyone to have access to health care, including in private hospitals, through a publicly funded national insurance system.
To massive applause from supporters, voters were promised that the child support grant would be extended to cover all up to the age of 18. This was part of an expensive social security net to cater for the unemployed and poor.
Zuma did not attach a price tag to the manifesto, but ANC leaders privately admit, to allay fears of a tax hike, that it would be too costly to implement.
Among the ways the party intends cushioning the poor from the global economic crisis is a "mass scale" emergency food relief programme to the poorest households and a "food-for-all programme" that would see basic food being made available to needy communities at affordable prices.
Zuma also announced emergency social development measures such as soup kitchens and a distress grant to those in dire need.
On the contentious issue of black economic empowerment, Zuma vigorously defended black employment equity and affirmative action and said the policy had led to the emergence of 2,6 million middle-class black people over the past 15 years.
"We will continue to advance these progressive policies," he said.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Sunday Independent on January 11, 2009
Johannesburg
