Post date: Jan 11, 2014 4:18:18 PM
South African President Jacob Zuma makes cracking down on corruption his central platform at the launch of the ANC's election manifesto.
NELSPRUIT, MPUMALANGA PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA (JANUARY 11, 2014) (REUTERS) - South African President Jacob Zuma announced a crackdown against corruption on Saturday (January 11), presenting his ruling ANC's manifesto for elections this year that will give the party its toughest political test since the end of apartheid.
Zuma, who has ruled Africa's biggest economy since 2009 and himself faces allegations of graft and abuse of power, announced the measures at a packed African National Congress (ANC) rally in the western province of Mpumalanga.Two decades after South Africa's first multi-racial ballot won by Nelson Mandela, who died last month, the 102-year old liberation movement is fighting to counter an erosion of voter support in the elections, expected in April. This threat comes from popular anger over persisting poverty and high unemployment in one of the most unequal societies in the world.
"Our priorities during this term shall remain education, health, rural development, land reform and food security, the creation of more jobs, decent work and sustainable livelihoods, and the fight against crime and corruption," Zuma told the gathered crowds.
The ANC is still expected to win the vote. But criticism that its leaders including Zuma are more interested in enriching themselves than in lifting up South Africa's struggling poor and jobless masses have dented the party's self-projected role as the champion of the working class.
Zuma, who was booed in public last month at a memorial to Mandela, made a point of pledging the anti-corruption drive when he presented the ANC's 2014 elections manifesto to a partisan crowd in a soccer stadium in the city of Nelspruit.
"The ANC remains very clear that corruption must be fought wherever it occurs and in all its manifestations. We shall continue to work with all sectors of society and all our anti-corruption agencies to address this scourge," Zuma said, winning cheers from supporters wearing the party's yellow, green and black colours.
The president said any ANC and government officials found guilty of corruption by a court of law would be expected to step down from leadership positions.
Zuma, a polygamous Zulu traditionalist whose five-year rule has seen scandals, feeble economic growth and labour and social unrest, himself faces public outcry over a $21 million state-funded security upgrade to his private home.
He denies any wrongdoing.
Although Zuma listed advances over the last 20 years in tackling inequalities inherited from apartheid, the ANC faces a political challenge from the left, from disgruntled workers and some party defectors who propose more radical policies.