Speech to focus on growth, land and students
THE ANC’s January 8 statement is expected to place strong emphasis on growing the economy and job creation.
ANC head of policy and Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe told the Sunday Times that President Jacob Zuma would focus on accelerated land reform.
Other measures to be outlined include plans to rejuvenate the struggling mining sector.
With the academic year set to begin soon, Zuma will lay out detailed measures to address the concerns of students in an attempt to prevent a resurgence of last year’s violent campus protests.
“There will be more emphasis on the issues of land, on the issue of agriculture, to accelerate all the programmes of Operation Phakisa, in particular the oceans economy, which is being implemented as we speak,” said Radebe.
“Education is our apex priority as well and you will see in the statement by the president it will be featuring very prominently . . . also mining, because mining is one of our core sectors of the economy. The president will soon be outlining Operation Phakisa in the mining sector to re-ignite [it].”
The government launched Operation Phakisa in 2014, calling it a “fast results programme” to implement the National Development Plan.
Radebe said the ANC would insist this year on strict and rigorous implementation of policies to stimulate economic growth.
He said the ANC was “generally satisfied” with the progress it made last year, but the party wanted to act with greater speed and urgency. Radebe said the governing party would clamp down on the factional politics that were dividing it.
The ANC needed to embark on a path of self-correction after last year’s local government elections showed that some sections of the public had lost confidence in it.
“The ANC is still a leading force in society,” Radebe said. “We’re doing reflection in order to deal with those matters so that we can reverse that decline.”