The African National Congress (ANC) noted on Thursday that it will continue to “unapologetically pursue” an inclusive and transformed economy by promoting and monitoring the substantive participation of black people, women, youth and persons with disabilities in the mainstream economy, through legislative and policy interventions.

In a statement released by the party on Thursday, it highlighted its election manifesto targets.

This entails ensuring that the ANC-government’s black industrialists programme leads to the quantitative and qualitative increase and participation of black industrialists in the national economy.

This further entailed the creation of multiple and diverse pathways and instruments for black industrialists to enter strategic and targeted industrial sectors and value chains, the ANC explained.

The ANC noted that mobilising additional private sector investment was important for building an inclusive economy, while it acknowledged how infrastructure challenges were constraining growth.

“As part of our infrastructure build, we will be undertaking significant water infrastructure projects which include dams, water treatment plants, pump stations and pipes in underserviced areas,” the ANC promised.

It added that industrialisation would be placed at the centre of the party’s efforts to grow the economy by protecting existing industries, such as the steel industry, and advancing “industries of the future”, such as electric vehicle manufacturing.

The party highlighted that, through its manifesto, it was recommitting itself to putting the people’s needs and dreams at the centre of its programme, claiming that it was the only party in South Africa that was capable of building on the “successes” of the first 30 years of democracy.

The ANC manifesto outlines commitments for the State to play a more effective role in leading structural reforms and guiding increased levels of investment, to achieve accelerated employment creation.

The party understands that to achieve this, interventions must be economically sound and must be sustainable over the long term.

“Our manifesto reflects the fact that ANC policies are driven by the interests of the masses of ordinary people and the working class, whose interests we continue to put at the centre of our economic policy,” the party said.

Meanwhile, it said its housing policy would continue to evolve so that it can build more subsidised houses, upgrade informal settlements and provide basic services, build more rental stock for the missing middle and confront urbanisation through the development of integrated human settlements in well-located areas.