RUSTENBURG, South Africa: South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC), the once-proud party of Nelson Mandela, on Saturday unveiled an ambitious six-point reform drive aimed at transforming public frustration into votes at local government polls later this year.
Founded more than a century ago, the ANC led the struggle that toppled apartheid and held power ever since South Africa transitioned to democracy in 1994.
But in 2024 it suffered a bruising setback, losing its parliamentary majority for the first time, forcing it into a coalition government.
“We cannot blame our people if they question whether our democracy, our constitution, our economy and indeed the ANC and the Alliance really work for them,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said, referring to the party’s long-standing coalition with trade unions.
He was speaking at a ceremony marking ANC’s 114th anniversary in the northwestern town of Rustenburg, where thousands of supporters draped in the party’s black, green and yellow filled the venue with song and dance.
“We need to act with urgency, determination and courage in making renewal more visible and irreversible. We fully understand that we either renew or perish.”
The reform blueprint zeroes in on unemployment, entrenched corruption, worsening inequality and runaway crime, hot?button issues in the nation of more than 63 million people.
Joblessness surged past 30 percent during the Covid-19 pandemic and has stubbornly remained there, despite a string of government programmes aimed at spurring employment.
