Johnathan Paoli
Over the last 30 years of ANC rule, one of the ruling party’s biggest achievements has been poverty alleviation through social grants to deal with the significant increase in the number of poor people who rely on the government for survival, said President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday.
Ramaphosa was giving the ANC’s January 8 statement at a packed Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga and said that the number of citizens who rely on social grants increased to 25.5 million from a population of more than 60 million.
The president said that the 47% increase meant that less people were forced to live the harsh reality of poverty due to the assistance from the government.
“Whether they like it or not, the South Africa of today is different and vastly improved from the South Africa of 30 years ago. And that has been brought by the ANC,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa said the ruling party took pride in what it called the improvement of South Africans’ lives, despite facing obstacles along the past three decades.
“In 2024, we will focus on working together with the alliance and all sectors of society to accelerate the reconstruction of our economy, to deliver quality basic services, infrastructure, and renew the ANC and society,” the president said.
National chairperson Gwede Mantashe said that the full stadium was a clear indication that the former liberation movement was still loved by its supporters.
“Despite all the problems, we know there were people who were stoning buses in certain areas, we know there was a problem of security blocking entrance, but the stadium is full,” Mantashe said.
During his speech, Ramaphosa said the ANC was targeting a decisive victory in the 2024 general elections and vowed that renewing the party, reconstructing the economy, improving basic services and infrastructure, ending load shedding and tackling crime and corruption were the main issues that needed to be addressed.
Ramaphosa indicated that the SASSA SRD Grants were expected to be renewed in 2024, and more importantly they were non-negotiable.
The Social Relief of Distress grant was first introduced as a temporary stipend to cushion the vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic and has since been extended several times over.
Furthermore, the president said that 89% of households now have access to water, while 85% of homes have access to main electricity, thereby reducing the burden on women and girls, who no longer need to spend hours fetching wood and water.
Ramaphosa outlined a two-pronged approach to deal with lack of basic services, namely through the social wage which would involve a range of social and economic interventions, including expanding access to quality basic services.
“One of the most direct actions by our government has been the provision of an effective social security net,” Ramaphosa said.
The president also said that the ANC-led government has dramatically improved access to education, from early childhood right through to post-school education, with nearly every young person aged 15-24 years is literate, and adult literacy now stands at 85%, up from only 64% in 1996.
“Many interventions have been introduced, including school fee exemption, the school nutrition programme and scholar transport, to ensure poverty does not stand in the way of children’s access to quality education,” Ramaphosa said.
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