JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 11 -- As South Africa is faced with sluggish economic growth, ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is also South African president, on Saturday promised the party would focus on building inclusive growth and drive investment in this new year.
"Our priority is to pursue investment, jobs and inclusive growth. The creation of jobs remains our central priority for 2020," he told thousands of ANC's supporters at the party's 108 birthday celebration in Kimberley.
The speech which he delivered is known as the January 8 statement that set out the key priorities for the course of the year.
With unemployment rising and food prices going up, Ramaphosa said the ANC would also work hard in tackling such problems.
"We will intensify both job creation and other measures to improve the lives of the poor. We will work to reduce the cost of living for poor and working people generally, through better public transport and lower costs for electricity and other services," he said.
Ramaphosa said empowering and ensuring that young people have skills was crucial in dealing with unemployment and inequality.
"We will work together to realise the enormous potential of our youth by tackling joblessness, poverty and inequality and developing the skills that our people and economy need," he said.
With state-owned power utility Eskom facing difficulties in ensuring energy supply, the president said the transformation of this entity would continue. His government plans to divide Eskom into three business entities in an effort to deal with its problems.
"We will accelerate the process of transforming Eskom into an effective and reliable electricity supplier that can operate in an open, competitive energy sector," he said.
On the land issue, Ramaphosa said the party would continue ensuring that all South Africans have access to land.
"The struggle to return the land of this country to all the people of South Africa remains a historical and economic imperative. All legislative efforts to accelerate the return of the land to the people will be done lawfully and in line with the provisions of the Constitution," Ramaphosa said.