Formal housing and clean drinking water
One of the most visible, impactful and meaningful achievements in the first three decades of freedom has been in providing homes to the people. Today, nearly nine out of every 10 households live in a formal dwelling.
Where there were once shacks and mud houses, there are now homes of brick and mortar. These are homes with water to drink and to wash with, homes with electricity for lighting and cooking. At the end of apartheid, only six out of 10 people had access to clean drinking water. Today, that figure has increased to nearly nine out of 10 South Africans.
“We are working to ensure that subsidised housing is located close to work, education and services.” – President Cyril Ramaphosa, SoNA, 8 February 2024, Cape Town City Hall.
Improving municipalities
For services to be delivered, local government has to work. Too many municipalities are failing on governance, financial and service-delivery measures. These constraints affect every aspect of peoples’ daily lives.
Government has started the implementation of a number of measures to address this problem by providing support to local government, including professionalising the civil service and ensuring that people with the right skills are appointed to key positions.
The Presidency, National Treasury and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs are working together to enhance technical capacity in local government and to improve planning, coordination and fiscal oversight.
Through the Presidential izimbizo that have been held across the country, government has seen how the District Development Model (DDM) has brought together all spheres of government and key stakeholders to address the service delivery challenges in communities.
The DDM has proven to be an effective instrument to enhance cooperative governance and collaboration. Government will continue to broaden and deepen this process.
Interventions to end load-shedding
Government has set out a clear plan to end load-shedding, which it has been implementing with a single-minded focus through the National Energy Crisis Committee. Government has delivered on it commitments to bring substantial new power through private investment on to the grid, which is already helping to reduce load-shedding.
Last year, government implemented a major debt relief package, which will enable Eskom to make investments in maintenance and transmission infrastructure and ensure its sustainability going forward.
Since government revived its renewable energy programme five years ago, it has connected more than 2 500 megawatts of solar and wind power to the grid with three times this amount already in procurement or construction.
Through tax incentives and financial support, government has more than doubled the amount of rooftop solar capacity installed across the country in just the past year.
Government has implemented sweeping regulatory reforms to enable private investment in electricity generation, with more than 120 new private energy projects now in development.
These phenomenal developments are driving the restructuring of the electricity sector in line with what many other economies have done to increase competitiveness and bring down prices.
“Through all of these actions, we are confident that the worst is behind us and the end of load-shedding is finally within reach. But we are not stopping there.
“To ensure that we never face a similar crisis ever again, we are reforming our energy system to make it more competitive, sustainable and reliable into the future.
“We are going to build more than 14 000 kilometres of new transmission lines to accommodate renewable energy over the coming years.” – President Cyril Ramaphosa, SoNA, 8 February 2024, Cape Town City Hall.
To fast-track this process, government will enable private investment in transmission infrastructure through a variety of innovative investment models.
Last year, government tabled the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill to support the restructuring of Eskom and establish a competitive electricity market.
As government undertakes these reforms, it is positioning the economy for future growth in a world shaped by climate change and a revolution in green technologies.
In the last three years, South Africa has seen an increase in extreme weather events, often with disastrous consequences.
This is why government is implementing a Just Energy Transition, not only to reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change, but to create growth and jobs for its own people.
Government will undertake this transition at a pace, scale and cost that the country can afford and in a manner that ensures energy security.
With the abundance of solar, wind and mineral resources, government is going to create thousands of jobs in renewable energy, green hydrogen, green steel, electric vehicles and other green products.
The Northern Cape, with its optimal solar conditions, has already attracted billions of rands in investment.
Improved life expectancy and healthcare
South Africans are living longer than ever before. Life expectancy has increased from 54 years in 2003 to 65 years in 2023. Maternal and infant deaths have declined dramatically.
Government has built more hospitals and clinics, especially in poor areas, providing better quality care to more South Africans. Today, 95% of persons diagnosed with HIV know their status, 79% of those receive antiretroviral treatment, and 93% of those are virally suppressed. New HIV infections among young people have declined significantly.
And yet, while the health system has had a great impact on people’s lives, government is working to improve both the quality of healthcare and equality of access.
The National Health Insurance (NHI) will provide free healthcare at the point of care for all South Africans, whether in public or private health facilities.
Government plans to incrementally implement the NHI, dealing with issues like health system financing, the health workforce, medical products, vaccines and technologies, and health information systems.
Poverty alleviation
Government’s policies and programmes have, over the course of 30 years, lifted millions of people out of dire poverty. Today, fewer South Africans go hungry and fewer live in poverty.
In 1993, South Africa faced a significant poverty challenge, with 71.1% of its population living in poverty. However, under the democratic government, there has been a consistent decline in these numbers.
By 2010, the poverty rate had dropped to 60.9%, and it continued to decrease, reaching 55.5 % in 2020, as reported by the World Bank. This progress has been made possible by extensive support to those in society who need it most.
Five years ago, government introduced a further measure to tackle poverty by introducing National Minimum Wage as envisaged in the Freedom Charter. The decision by key role players, being business and labour and communities to introduce the minimum wage immediately, raised the wages of over six million workers.
In the midst of the pandemic, government introduced the special Social Relief of Distress Grant, which currently reaches some nine million unemployed people every month. Government has seen the benefits of this grant and will extend it and improve it as the next step towards income support for the unemployed.
These grants and subsidies do much more than give people what they need to live. They are an investment in the future.
Social assistance has been shown to increase school enrolment and attendance, lower drop-out rates, and improve the pass rate.
