ANC STATEMENT ON SAPS DECISION It has come to the attention of - TopicsExpress

ANC STATEMENT ON SAPS DECISION It has come to the attention of the African National Congress that the South African Police Service has taken a decision not to grant permission to the Democratic Alliance to march to Chief Albert Luthuli House, the ANC headquarters, on the 4th of February 2014. This decision was reached by the SAPS following a security assessment which found that the threats associated with this march were very risky. The outcome of this security assessment confirms our long-held view that the DAs intended invasion of Luthuli House was ill-advised, ill-informed and risky. The ANC is however disappointed that we shall no longer have the opportunity to mete out a long overdue political education session to the DA and its members on the successes of the ANCs economic policies and job creation programmes over the last 20 years. We would have welcomed the opportunity to educate the DA that successive ANC governments have turned around a collapsing and nearly bankrupt economy in 1994 into a thriving one with growth rates averaging 3.6 percent annually consistently over the last two decades. We would have told the good story that because of ANC policies contained in our different manifestos over the years, the South African economy was one of the most resilient in the world during the recent global economic crisis and that today, 5 million more people have jobs than there were in 1994. While a lot more still remains to be done, our 2014 General Elections Manifesto commits the ANC government to focus with even greater urgency on infrastructure development underpinned by massive industrialisation, thus creating opportunity for faster economic growth and greater numbers of our people to participate meaningfully in the economy. The ANC reiterates its position and willingness to engage all sectors of society, including the DA, on the contents of our manifesto; the Peoples Manifesto. Such an engagement may indeed prove fruitful to the DA in order to mask their lack of clear policy positions on the economy and other areas of socio-economic endeavour. While we await the outcome of their intended appeal against the decision of the SAPS on their intended invasion of Luthuli house, the ANC working together with our people will continue to move South Africa forward.