East London - ANC President Jacob Zuma launched his party's parliamentary election campaign on Saturday by promising massive public spending projects, an answer to critics who say the party has done too little for the poorest of the poor.
Zuma, who is idolised by the impoverished, told a rollicking rally of 60 000 leftist supporters that his African National Congress is determined, despite the global financial crisis, to create jobs and a stronger social safety net in this nation of 50 million people plagued by poverty, unemployment and an AIDS epidemic.
The country has one of the most vibrant economies in Africa, but the ANC has acknowledged the dangers of the global economic meltdown, one that already has left South Africa facing massive layoffs in its key mining sector.
Zuma told the cheering crowd dressed in yellow T-shirts bearing pictures of his smiling face that South Africa has made great strides since the end of apartheid. Millions more people have housing, access to clean water and social security payments.
He said the credit went to ordinary South Africans.
"It is due to their efforts that we can now say with confidence that much has been done in addressing the legacy of apartheid over the last 15 years, that much more remains to be done, and that working together, we can do more."
The ANC, which hopes to stimulate the economy and avoid a recession, was launching its campaign platform for parliamentary elections that must be held by April. No date has been set.
Stiff competition
The election manifesto offered no specifics about how funds would be raised for the spending. Budget constraints have kept the ANC from completely fulfilling such promises in the past.
Its economic promises were far more socialist than those of Zuma's predecessor as ANC chief, Thabo Mbeki. As president of the country, Mbeki pursued free-market policies beginning in 1999 that were praised for strong economic growth but accused of providing few benefits for the poor.
The ANC, famous for its successful battle against white rule in South Africa, has dominated each of the three previous parliamentary elections since the first post-apartheid votes in 1994.
The party is expected to do well in this year's parliamentary vote, but it faces a new challenge from former ANC members who founded a new party last year after the ANC forced Mbeki to step down as the nation's president.
The expected ANC parliamentary victory would ensure the presidency for Zuma, despite his reputation being tarnished by sex and corruption scandals.
At Saturday's rally, Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the country's largest federation of trade unions, said the ANC's manifesto was an expression of ordinary South Africans' "hopes and aspirations."
'Tried and tested loyal member of the ANC'
A message of support from former President Nelson Mandela was read out by his daughter Zindzi Mandela. At 90, Mandela is retired and has refused to be drawn into party divisions. "My father is a tried and tested loyal member of the ANC," Zindzi Mandela said.
The party manifesto called for more public investment in infrastructure; expanding public employment; increasing social security grants; setting up "soup kitchens" and other programmes to fight hunger; and the introduction of a state-funded health insurance system.
The document laid out "almost sole reliance on the state - state leading, state creating jobs. That's almost a paradigm shift," South African economist Iraj Abedian said. "It is a matter of concern, and I'm sure business will find that in a way problematic."
But Jabulani Mhlongo, who has been wheelchair bound since 1988 after being shot by police at an anti-apartheid protest, said he found Zuma's speech encouraging.
"Zuma is a person who is very close to the people," the 50-year-old preacher said. "Before his leadership, the ANC was for the elite. Now it will be for the people."
- AP