ACT manifesto targets practical solutions for communities

The African Congress for Transformation (ACT) says its Local Government Elections (LGE) Manifesto will focus on practical solutions to challenges facing communities.

ACT President-General, Ace Magashule, says the party has identified key priorities including education, unemployment, poverty, infrastructure, water and electricity provision, potholes and drug abuse.

Magashule was speaking at the launch of the party’s election Manifesto in Welkom, in the Free State. He says the party wants to restore hope and public confidence in local government.

ACT, he says, will also consult communities in municipalities where it wins elections before deciding on mayoral leadership.

“I hear people saying load shedding is done, but you can see that these things are not done. These things are still there. Potholes, everything, hopelessness, unemployment, drugs. This is what we are actually addressing in our manifesto. And we don’t promise people that in 100 days we will do something. In those 100 days, we should be consulting them and saying, this is what we find in this municipality. And that’s why we don’t even have mayoral candidates because we still want to go to communities where we win and say, ‘who do you want as a mayor candidate?’ So that we listen to our people,” says Magashule.

Moreover, the party says the lack of a matric certificate should not automatically prevent someone from serving as a municipal councillor.

Magashule says the party wants to open opportunities for people with experience and knowledge of their communities to serve in local government.

Magashule says ACT’s approach forms part of its call for greater power to be given to communities, as the party campaigns under the theme: “Fix the Municipality, Restore the Community, Reclaim Our Future.”

Ace Magashule’s ACT party launches elections manifesto:

Meanwhile, the Voice for Change movement says it attended the ACT’s manifesto launch because the two organisations share similar views on a number of political issues.

VFC Chairperson, Tabile Masunyane, says the movement accepted ACT’s invitation to show its support, describing the party as one of several formations with which it shares similar ideas and approaches to political struggles.

Masunyane says VFC is aligning itself with parties that hold similar views, while leaving open the possibility of cooperation with ACT and other like-minded organisations.

“We are here today because we had to honour an invite from ACT, whereby they are actually introducing their manifesto today, but because on most points, we are sharing the same sentiments.”

[IN PICTURES] Members of the African Congress for Transformation (ACT) are in high spirits as the party president Ace Magashule is set to launch the party’s manifesto at the Indoor Sports Centre in Thabong, Welkom. pic.twitter.com/7EZx5d0Og3

— SABC News (@SABCNews) October 3, 2026

By Lebohang Motshweneng