Pretoria - South Africa has made tremendous strides since 1994, as evident by the role that women now play in the State, the economy and other sectors.
Delivering his annual January 8 Statement on Saturday in Polokwane, president of the African National Congress (ANC), Jacob Zuma said in 2009 more than 200 000 houses were built.
However, he cautioned ANC branches to assist in eradicating the problem of people who receive new houses, then rent them out and move back to informal settlements, causing government to chase moving targets.
"This irresponsible practice has to stop," Zuma said.
A lot of progress has been made in providing water supply. More than 46 million South Africans or 93 percent of the population now have access to basic water supply.
More than 400 000 additional people were served with basic water supply last year. By March this year, a further more than 800 000 South Africans will have been served with basic water supply.
He said the ANC government electrifies more than 150 000 houses per year. Work in building energy security for the country also continues.
"These endeavours, beyond providing shelter, contribute to economic growth and job creation - whilst at the same time restoring human dignity," Zuma said.
In terms of the fight against poverty, he said South Africa has been relatively successful due to the extensive coverage of the social security programme.
Close to 15 million South Africans obtain social grants from the State, 10 million of these are children who receive the Child Support Grant, linked to school attendance.
"Since we are building a developmental and not a welfare state, the social grants should be linked to economic activity and community development, to enable short-term beneficiaries to become self-supporting in the long run," he said.
He said alcohol and drug abuse were twin scourges that impact negatively on all aspects of South African society, adding that government has established an inter-Ministerial Committee to develop and implement a campaign to reduce the impact of alcohol abuse and drug use.
The campaign will have particular focus on alcohol, given the high levels of abuse.
Turning to the South African media, Zuma said the country needed a strong and diverse media that is independent of commercial and political interests, which will support nation building as well as efforts to deepen, consolidate and strengthen democracy, social cohesion and good governance.
"We will continue encouraging the print media in particular, to speed up its transformation processes, in line with the attainment of freedom and democracy in the country in 1994," he said.
The ANC will continue to promote and fight for media freedom as it has always done throughout its existence.
"We reiterate what we said in our 2007 Strategy and Tactics document that we place a high premium on the involvement of our cadres in all centres of power.
"ANC cadres have a responsibility to promote progressive traditions within the intellectual community, which includes our universities and the media.
"We also need their presence and involvement in key strategic positions in the State as well as the private sector, and will continue strategic deployments in this regard."
