Mzansi celebrities spotted at the #AncManifesto

Mzansi celebrities spotted at the #AncManifesto. ANC president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has vowed to boost South Africa’s struggling economy, tackle illegal businesses in townships, increase the number of police on the street, give prosecutors more bite and fight the scourge of drugs in communities across the country.

These were among the main promises to emerge from the ANC’s election manifesto and January 8 statement at the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban on Saturday.

The ANC plans to turn around the economy by raising R1.2 trillion in new investments over five years.

Ramaphosa said they will proceed with the establishment of an Infrastructure Fund, in which we will pool government’s infrastructure budget and use it to raise additional funds from other public and private sources to build roads, rail lines, broadband networks, hospitals, schools, dams and other infrastructure vital for a growing economy.

“We will open up markets for new, emerging companies by ending monopolies and behaviour that stifles competition,” he said. Ramaphosa said the manifesto has a specific focus on the economies of townships and villages. They remind us of the responsibility we all share to complete that journey, no matter how difficult, no matter how perilous. This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the achievement of democracy.

We celebrate 25 years of freedom. We celebrate the fact that South Africa is today a better place, a nation united in its diversity, working together to overcome the injustices of its past. It is a nation founded on a democratic and progressive Constitution that guarantees equal rights to all people.

It is a nation with strong and durable democratic institutions, an independent judiciary, a free media and an active civil society. Over the last 25 years, working together, we have given substance to the promise of a better life for all.

Millions of poor South Africans have benefited from the provision of free houses, the restitution of land and the provision of electricity, water and sanitation. We have transformed the future of millions of young people by massively expanding enrolment in schools, universities, colleges and early childhood development.

We have expanded access to health care, increased average life expectancy, reduced maternal mortality and turned the tide of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Our economy has tripled in size since 1994 and over 7 million more South Africans have jobs.

Yet, despite these remarkable achievements, many of our people live in desperate hardship, without appropriate skills, work or opportunities to improve their lot. Even as we celebrate the great benefits of democracy, we know that the promise of freedom is yet to be realised by so many of our people.

Even as we applaud the great progress that has been made, we must acknowledge that mistakes have been made and that in some areas transformation has stalled. We must acknowledge that state capture and corruption have weakened several of our public institutions, undermined effective governance and contributed to the poor performance of our economy.

We must also acknowledge that factionalism and patronage has diminished the ability of the ANC to lead the process of transformation and fulfil its mandate to the people. As the ANC, we admit our shortcomings, we accept the criticism of the people and we are hard at work to correct our mistakes.

The last 25 years have demonstrated the enormity and complexity of the task of redressing the injustices of the past and advancing fundamental change. However, the last 25 years have also shown the great power of a nation working as one to achieve a common goal.

Here are some of the celebrities we spotted present at the manifesto…