ANC declares unemployment a national disaster – Magashule

He said they would not rest until the unemployment rate had shrunk from 27% to 14% over the next five years.

Ace Magashule. Picture: Jacques Naude / African News Agency (ANA)

Briefing the media after the ANC national executive committee (NEC) lekgotla, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule said that the ruling party had declared unemployment a national emergency and disaster.

His words came, ironically, hours after Stats SA revealed that the national gross domestic product had shrunk in the last quarter by 3.2%, which is likely only to worsen unemployment.

The ANC NEC convened at the St George’s Hotel in Irene in Pretoria on Friday to examine the former liberation movement’s performance in the May 8 national and provincial elections, and to plot the path of the sixth government.

The ANC emerged victorious in the May 8 elections, but with a weakened majority on the national ballot, scoring only 57.51 percent of the vote, down from 62.15 percent in 2014. However, Magashule believed the party would regain the lost ground.

On Saturday, the ANC gave “the mandate to our ministers, deputy ministers, premiers, and everybody to say this is the line of march”. The ANC was emphasising unity within the leadership to avoid “bickerings”, Magashule said.

“Five successive ANC administrations, working with the people, have over the 25 years put in place a progressive social wage that protects the dignity of the vulnerable (children, the elderly, people living with disabilities); extended basic services to millions of people – 3.1 million houses, access to electricity to over 70%of households, access to water, sanitation and refuse removal to millions as well as health care and build and upgraded roads and social infrastructure in disadvantaged areas where the majority live,” said Magashule.

“The economy, after decades of recession grew, GDP tripled and employment doubled over this period. On the fiscal side, we reduced the apartheid debt from 48.3% of GDP in 1994 to 22.4% in 2008, it spiralled again to 55.8% of GDP in 2018 following the financial crisis.

“Despite this progress, the persistence of the triple fault lines of poverty, unemployment and inequality, based on race and gender, remain major impediments to progress. Learning lessons from the first 25 years, we must therefore tackle the root causes of these persistent fault lines with determination and through grass root engagement we must do with all South Africans.”

The lekgotla identified seven areas for implementation over the term of the 6th administration from 2019-2024, that formed the foundation of their manifesto. These were:

Transforming the economy to serve all South Africans, and create jobs
Investing in the capabilities of all the people, through an education and skills revolution and health
Advancing social transformation through the strengthening of the social wage
Tackling the persistence of apartheid spatial development to build sustainable and safe human settlements, towns and rural areas, and effective local government
Advance nation-building and social cohesion, and a safe South Africa for all
Build a better Africa and World: Lekgotla appreciates the implementation of conference resolutions such the downgrading of the Israel embassy into a liaison office, solidarity with the people of Cuba, Venezuela, Saharawi, and especially Palestine.
Renewing and building a capable, honest, developmental state and a social compact.

Watch the briefing below: