Elections 2024: Gauteng ANC pulling out all the stops in bid to remedy province’s issues

JOHANNESBURG - As opposition parties launch different manifestos promising to deal with unemployment and the energy crisis, the African National Congress (ANC) in Gauteng is pulling out all the stops in a bid to attend to those issues ahead of the general elections.

ANC Gauteng Chairperson Panyaza Lesufi committed to offering more young people jobs, and installing transformers for Soweto residents.

Lesufi was speaking in Orlando, Soweto at an ANC volunteers assembly at the weekend.

He said his government would employ 35,000 young people to help at schools, and would fund the tuition for the province’s top performing matriculants.

Lesufi also announced that the province was considering employing former uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) combatants to help in the fight against crime.

The ANC’s MK veterans have spent many years calling on the party to lean on the skills they learnt while in exile to address some of South Africa’s challenges, such as tackling crime, but these calls have largely gone unnoticed.

It now seems the launch of the rival MK party, which is backed by Former President Jacob Zuma, has given the ex-combatants a new lease on life.

Suddenly, their presence formed an important part of ANC activities during the weekend.

Lesufi announced a series of jobs his government would be dishing out, with at least 3,000 new jobs being set aside for former members of the armed wing of the liberation movement.

"All combatants of uMkhonto weSizwe, don’t go that side, come this side. On the 5th of February, we want to take you to train you, to come and work and fight crime in Gauteng."

As the ANC cranks up its election machinery, Lesufi is planning to use the next few months to dish out jobs, install transformers in Soweto, and to fund further studies for Gauteng’s top matriculants – all of which form part of the governing party’s elections campaign.