WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2004-01-12 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 1/12/2004 8:06:32 AM
S.Africa: ANC kicks off bitter battle for third term
[Note. All the promises to the blacks and the lies. No doubt, we will see a lot of anti-white sentiment in this campaign and also we will get a glimpse into their dark plans for our future – of what they aim to steal from us in the name of “alleviating poverty”. What they really mean is: The Black Super Rich will get richer – and the black masses will remain as is, or even be worse off… at the expense of the whites…
I was told by a high-ranking DA (Democratic Alliance) strategist last year, this is Make-or-Break year for the DA. Well… I wish them luck. I wish they could win. Seeing the ANC gone would make my day, but I don’t believe it can happen. Jan]
The African National Congress launched what promises to be a bitter election campaign yesterday by promising to tackle the poverty and unemployment that plague South Africa 10 years after apartheid.
Unveiling a sweeping election manifesto, the president, Thabo Mbeki, declared his party’s intention to loosen its conservative economic policies by ramping up public spending.
Poverty and joblessness would be halved by 2014 with the help of R107-billion spent on roads, rail and air transport and telecommunications, he told 30 000 supporters in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal province.
“It is a period of hope because I know that if I live in a shack today, tomorrow I will live in a house; if I’m unemployed today, tomorrow I will work,” said Mbeki.
Against expectations, the president’s predecessor, Nelson Mandela, failed to attend the rally. Mandela’s spokesperson was unavailable for comment, leaving ANC officials to deny speculation that his absence was linked to frosty relations between the two men.
The elections are likely to be held in March or early April, with the new president sworn in on April 27 — the anniversary of the first democratic elections in 1994, which ended white minority rule.
The ANC, returned to power in 1999 with nearly two-thirds of the vote, is expected to easily win another five-year term but will face questions about its handling of the economy, Aids, and Zimbabwe. It will also battle to gain control of two provinces, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
The campaign is likely to sour an already bitter political atmosphere, with the fractured opposition complaining yesterday that the ruling party had hijacked the public broadcaster to give live television and radio coverage of Mbeki’s speech.
Claiming that 1m jobs had been lost since 1994, Tony Leon, the leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance, scorned the promise to increase public spending as impractical and unbelievable. “Over the past 10 years the ANC has proved that it is very good at making promises and very bad at delivering on them,” he said.
“The ANC’s problem in this election is one of credibility. South Africans will meet the promises offered in the ANC’s 2004 election manifesto with understandable scepticism.”
He claimed since 1994 1-million jobs had been lost; millions of people were infected with HIV/Aids and that millions of people had become victims of violent crime.
“It is on these battleground issues that change is needed while the ANC manifesto offers more of the same,” said Leon.
He said the ANC’s central promise to spend an additional R100-billion over the next 10 years on infrastructure and in an effort to create a million jobs, was ill-conceived.
“The ANC’s primary success over the past 10 years has been to stick to a responsible fiscal policy that has enabled South Africa to reduce our national debt. This is the main reason why our economy has managed the modest, though still insufficient, growth. There are only three ways in which the ANC will be able to raise an additional R100-billion.”
Leon said these options were not desirable as they would not bring long term investment and might well be detrimental to the country’s economy.
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said the ANC’s election manifesto lacked content and was characterised by “being timid”.
Musa Zondi, the IFP’s spokesperson said the document did not have clear proposals for dealing with important issues such as HIV/Aids, job creation, corruption, economic growth and crime eradication.
“The most glaring omission is the lack of a comprehensive plan to eradicate HIV/Aids and that the pandemic is not designated as the national emergency it is,” said Zondi.
However, the New National Party (NNP) said it viewed the manifesto, in both a positive and negative light.
“On the positive side is the commitment to job creation, the investment in infrastructure and the deployment of 150 000 police men and women,” said NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk.
“On the negative side is the glaring omission of the huge challenges facing education and the NNP would have liked to see a more comprehensive approach to fighting crime, including tougher sentences, more courts and the reinstatement of the death penalty for brutal crimes.”
Patricia De Lille, leader of the Independent Democrats (ID), called the election manifesto, “vague, repetitive and full of rhetoric”.
“The ANC has been in a contract with the people of this country for the past ten years. A contract the ANC has already breached by failing to deliver on their last election manifesto,” said De Lille.
She said while the economic fundamentals on a macro level had improved, the ANC could not claim a well-managed economy when 45% of the population survived on less than R600 a month and while unemployment stood at over 40%.
The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) said poverty and unemployment were the key ANC failures and questioned its timing for announcing programmes aimed at improving the lives of poor people.
The party’s spokesperson, Selby Khumalo, said Mbeki had correctly identified poverty and unemployment as major concerns and that these were the chief areas of failure of the ANC government to date.
“Mbeki is trying to convince us that the ANC now has the answers. The Public Works programme sounds good in theory, but the ACDP asks why this has only been introduced in an election year? If the programme is viable, then we ask why the people have had to wait so long for an idea that is not new?” .
Dr Pieter Mulder, leader of the Freedom Front Plus (FF(43)+) said Mbeki and the ANC had missed an opportunity to propose new and creative solutions for South Africa’s problems.
“The ANC proposals, as worded in their manifesto, are just more of the same. As expected, the ANC emphasis is on job creation and fighting poverty. These are important issues and serious problems but no new proposals are being made on how these problems will be addressed in the next five years.”
Surveys predict voter turnout will decline, reflecting disillusion with the so-called rainbow nation.
Citing the millions who have received new houses, clean water and electricity under the ANC, Mbeki said the past decade had been one of racial reconciliation and concrete improvements.
“We inherited a population in despair. Today we have a population driven by hope,” he said. “We inherited an economy that was in crisis. We have turned around that economy.”
Acknowledging the continued blight of poverty and unemployment, he called for a “people’s contract” — “Rich and poor, black and white, men and women, let’s come together as one to confront our common national problems.”
The president promised to speed up the empowerment programme which transfers control of the economy to black citizens. The stalled land reform, which was supposed to end white dominance of commercial farming, will also be accelerated.
Critics have accused the ANC of betraying its commitment to the poor by “talking left, acting right”: using socialist rhetoric to mask neo-liberal economic policies which favour balancing the budget and controlling inflation over creating jobs for a young, fast-growing population.
Mbeki implicitly acknowledged that accusation by saying the fiscal prudence of the past decade allowed the ANC to embark on bolder wealth redistribution.
The party hopes criticism of its handling of the Aids epidemic will have been neutralised by a recent pledge to treat everyone with HIV.
Party strategists also believe that criticism of Mbeki’s “quiet diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe — widely seen as a euphemism for coddling Robert Mugabe — will not alienate core voters. – Guardian Unlimited (194)Â Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003, Sapa
Source: Daily Mail & Guardian
URL: http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=29493br>