A very good article by John Kane-Berman in today’s Business Day, highlighting the following: 1. 3.4-million houses have been built since 1994 2. The under-five mortality rate has fallen 24% since 1990. 3. The number of Africans who have completed grade 12 has risen in the past decade by 3.5-million and the proportion by 43%. 4. The proportion of schools that charge no fees has risen from 1% to 56%. 5. Africans now account for 53% of all first degrees awarded by universities. 6. Especially dramatic is the rise in the number of recipients of social grants, from 2.4-million in 1996 to an expected 17-million this year. 7. As a proportion of the budget, broad social spending — embracing housing, healthcare, education and welfare — has risen from 44%, when the ANC came to power, to 59% this year. 8. The private sector is mainly responsible for the fact that the proportion of African households with cellphones has climbed from 19% to 88%. This is but one example of how living standards have been rising. 9. Africans now account for a quarter of people in the top living standards category, against only 5% eight years ago. 10. Negotiated wage increases have outstripped inflation in all but two of the past 15 years. 11. But perhaps the greatest success the ANC has achieved since it came to power is one that will hardly feature in the elections. This is the substantial support it has mobilised for its comprehensive racial engineering policies in the form of black economic empowerment, employment equity, affirmative procurement and land reform.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 14:23:07 +0000
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