Ours is a story of struggle, sacrifice, progress and lessons still to be learnt. As we celebrate how far we’ve come, we look ahead to the work that remains. Democracy gives every eligible voter a voice in shaping their community’s future. So, let’s come to the table, celebrate our progress, ask the hard questions and make our voices heard. Because our future starts with us. Let’s continue building better communities together. #VoteAnc2026 ​ #Letsbuildbettercommunities

ANC National Chairperson Cde Gwede Mantashe takes the campaign trail to Kroonstad in the Fezile Dabi Region on Friday, 23 October, engaging ANC candidates, structures and volunteers before taking the campaign door to door in Nyakallong, Dr Cingo and Ikemeleng. The day will conclude with a community engagement at Dr Cingo School Hall as the ANC listens to residents and mobilises for the 4 November Local Government Elections. #VoteANC2026 #LetsBuildBetterCommunities

Today, ANC Second Deputy Secretary-General Cde Maropene Ramokgopa takes the campaign trail to the JB Marks Local Municipality in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda Region. The 2nd DSG will engage residents door to door at Bokoka VD in Mapetla, Ward 8, before addressing a community meeting at Gamatlabe Hall. #VoteANC2026 #LetsBuildBetterCommunities

Today, ANC Deputy President Cde Paul Mashatile takes the campaign trail to Ward 7 in the Greater Tshwane Region, engaging residents door to door in New Jerusalem and Paradise before addressing a community meeting. The ANC is listening to communities and mobilising for victory on 4 November. #VoteANC2026 #LetsBuildBetterCommunities

Better sanitation means healthier communities and greater dignity for every household. Access to improved sanitation increased from 61.7% of households in 2002 to approximately 84% in 2025. Investments in sewer infrastructure, pump stations and wastewater systems are helping address backlogs and strengthen essential services. There is more work to do, but every improvement brings us closer to cleaner, healthier communities. Better sanitation. Healthier lives. Stronger communities.​ #VoteAnc2026​ #Letsbuildbettercommunities

Dignity should never come with an age limit. South Africa’s Older Person’s Grant provides financial support to qualifying older residents. From April 2026, the maximum monthly grant increased to R2,400 for eligible beneficiaries aged 60–74, ​with a higher rate for qualifying people aged 75 and older. Reliable support helps older people meet essential needs ​and maintain their independence.​ #VoteAnc2026​ #Letsbuildbettercommunities

Tune in tonight at 21h00 as ANC KwaZulu-Natal PTT Convenor Cde Mike Mabuyakhulu joins Power 98.7’s Power Perspective to discuss political killings during the election season. #VoteANC2026

[WATCH] LET US CONTINUE BUILDING BETTER COMMUNITIES TOGETHER Fellow South Africans, this year we mark seventy years since the women marched in 1956, fifty years since the youth rose in 1976, and thirty years of our Constitution. Those generations won us our political freedom. Our task the task of this budget, and of this movement is to match that political freedom with economic progress, so that freedom is felt at the table and not only at the ballot box. This is the year of decisive action the year this movement set itself to fix local government and to transform our economy and this budget is that resolve turned into money: more for the places you live, more for the services you use, and relief in your pocket at the very moment you need it. The work of freedom is the work of the table, and this is a government getting on with it, with energy and with pride. That is why the African National Congress supports this Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement without hesitation. It is a budget that puts people first the pump, the plate, the pension, and the place you live. On the 4th of November, go out and vote, and vote to continue this good work. Let us continue to build better communities together. #MTBPS2026

[WATCH] WEATHERING THE STORM BETTER THAN OUR GLOBAL PEERS And hear the strength in this story. The whole world has been buffeted this year a war in the Gulf has pushed up the price of oil and of food across every continent. And yet South Africa is weathering that storm better than most countries like us, and bouncing back faster than our peers. Why? Because this movement, in government, took the firm decisions over five years and built up the nation's reserves our savings for a rainy day. So when the storm came, we were ready. We could cut the fuel tax. We could protect every single grant. We could send record money to the municipalities. A country that had squandered its money could not have done one of those things. We could because we govern responsibly, and we do it for the people. This is a government that does not flinch in a storm; it delivers in one, and it comes out of it stronger. #MTBPS2026

[WATCH] WATER, LIGHTS, JOBS AND BUILDING BETTER Seventh, this budget builds. It fixes the water system not only the pipes, but the broken institutions behind them through the National Water Action Plan, so that the tap runs when you open it. It presses on with fixing electricity, so that the lights stay on and new power can be built. And it puts its money into infrastructure roads, water, clinics, the projects that create work, worth more than two hundred billion rand in the pipeline. The Minister said a thing I want every South African to hear: the goal is not simply to spend more, it is to spend better every rand must work harder for the people. That is the discipline of a government that respects the money of the poor. #MTBPS2026

[WATCH] SAFETY: WOMEN, CHILDREN AND CRIME Sixth, this budget puts money behind the safety of our people, and above all of our women and children. It funds more than three and a half thousand new social workers to stand between a woman and the violence done to her. It nearly doubles the courts that deal with sexual offences, and it expands the care centres that support survivors of rape. It gives the police new vehicles because an officer without a working car cannot answer your call and it funds the soldiers who are helping the police against the gangs and the illegal miners. And it keeps funding the commissions of inquiry that are cleaning the rot out of the State, including out of the police itself, because this movement will clean its own house in full view of the people. That, too, is People First. #MTBPS2026

[WATCH] THE ENGINES OF OUR ECONOMY AND WHO THEY SERVE Fifth, let me speak about where this economy is made, because it tells a proud story. The wealth of this country is made, above all, in our great cities. Gauteng's three metros alone Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, the city region this movement built and leads produce more than a third of everything South Africa makes, and Johannesburg on its own produces close to a sixth of the nation's wealth. eThekwini, our home in KwaZulu-Natal, runs the busiest port on the African continent, the gateway through which the trade of a whole region flows. Mangaung, Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City carry the economic heart of their provinces. These are the engines of our country, and this budget fuels them — the biggest share for local government in our history, and more money for the metros to keep moving. And here is the difference that matters, and it is the difference between this movement and those who would replace it. Where the African National Congress governs, we grow the city for the many we carry the services and the opportunity into the township and the informal settlement, and not only to the leafy suburb. Consider the one great city our opponents in the Democratic Alliance run. Cape Town grows, yes, it grows at the back of Brand South Africa through the road network SANRAL builds and Airports which ACSA build and manage, it is a collective effort and not of some special group but also ask the people of Khayelitsha, of Mitchells Plain, of Gugulethu, whether that growth has reached their streets, their sanitation and their safety the way it has reached the other side of the mountain. A city that grows for some is not the same as a country that grows for all, this budget deal with that too – it tempers with exclusion. The African National Congress does not build an economy for a postcard. We build it for the people — all of the people, in every street and every settlement. That is People First. #MTBPS2026

[WATCH] THE COUNTRY'S PURSE: DISCIPLINE AND THE RATINGS Fourth, a word about the country's purse, and I will not hide behind big words. You will hear the phrase 'debt-to-GDP'. It simply means how much the country owes, measured against how much the country earns in a year. For almost twenty years that number kept climbing and a country that owes more and more must spend more and more on interest, money that should have built a school or a clinic going instead to the lender. This budget confirms that we have turned that corner. For the first time in nearly two decades the debt has stopped climbing and has begun to come down. And earlier this year all three of the world's major ratings agencies the firms that tell investors whether a country is safe to lend to gave South Africa positive news for the first time in years. Why should an ordinary person care? Because a country that controls its debt protects the grant, the pension and the nurse's salary. Discipline is not the enemy of the poor. Discipline is what keeps the promise to the poor affordable, year after year. That, too, is People First. #MTBPS2026

[WATCH] THE PLACE YOU LIVE : LOCAL GOVERNMENT Third, this budget speaks directly to the place where you live your municipality, your ward, your street. For the first time, the share of the nation's money that goes to local government has been lifted to ten per cent. In plain terms, that is more money sent to the town, the township and the village close to twenty-two billion rand more for free basic water, sanitation, electricity and refuse, and more for the metros to keep the taps and the lights running. But let me be as honest with you as the Minister was. Money is not the whole answer. Too many municipalities take the money and do not deliver the service. So the message of this budget, and the message of the African National Congress, is one and the same: every rand sent to a municipality must become water in the tap, a light in the street, a road without potholes, a clinic that is open with medication and ready staff. And on the 4th of November, it is you, the people who hold the pen. You will judge your municipality by whether it is ready to deliver. That is your power, and we ask you to use it. #MTBPS2026

[WATCH] ON THE SOCIAL WAGE PROTECTION Second, this budget protects what we call the social wage. That is a technical phrase, so let me translate it. The social wage is everything the democratic government gives you free, or at a price you can afford, so that being poor does not mean being without dignity. It is the free basic water, the free electricity and the free refuse removal that reach more than eleven million households. It is the plate of food a child eats at school, through the school feeding scheme, which reaches more than three-quarters of our learners. It is the old-age pension that keeps a grandmother standing, the disability grant, and the child support grant the grants that reach eighteen million of our people every single month. In this budget that social wage is not cut. It is protected, and it is grown: sixty cents of every rand government spends, outside of paying its debts, goes to the poor and the working class. And the budget sets aside more money to stop the theft of grants because a rand stolen from a grant is a rand stolen from a child. That is People First. #MTBPS2026

[WATCH] THE PUMP: FUEL LEVY RELIEF FOR OUR PEOPLE. Begin with the thing every household feels first: the price of fuel. When the oil price rises in a faraway war, the price at our pump rises here at home, and then everything rises with it because the bread, the maize and the chicken all travel to the shop on a truck, and the worker travels to the job in a taxi. The Minister has today cut the fuel levy. Now, the fuel levy is simply the tax that government adds to every single litre of petrol and of diesel. Let me give you the numbers plainly, because they matter at the pump. From the 4th of November to the 1st of December the busiest travelling weeks of the year the diesel levy comes down by three rand a litre, and the petrol levy by one rand and fifty cents a litre. And it does not stop there. From the 1st of December through to the 5th of January, the relief continues: the diesel levy stays down by one rand and fifty cents a litre, and the petrol levy by one rand a litre. In all, that is ten billion rand handed back to the people at the fuel pump. Hear what that means on the street and in the home. Lower diesel means the trucks that carry our bread, our maize and our chicken pay less to move them, so the price on the shelf is protected. Lower petrol means the taxi and the car cost less to run, so the fare and the trip to work are protected. In the very season when families travel home and the shops are busiest, government has lifted a weight off the household. That is People First. #MTBPS2026

[WATCH] THE ANC WELCOMES THE MEDIUM TERM BUDGET POLICY STATEMENT: A PEOPLE FIRST BUDGET The budget breakdown as presented by the minister tells us that 10 Billion has been handed back to the people at the fuel pumps, R3,00 off the diesel levy a litre, from the 4th of November, 10% of government spending to Local Government, a first, 18,1 Million people paid a grant every month and every grant is protected, it tells us that 60 cents of every rand spent goes to the poor and the working class and it tells us that 207 Billion will go in the infrastructure pipeline such as water, roads, clinics. The African National Congress welcomes the 2026 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, supports it without hesitation, and will carry its promises to the people. In a hard year the Minister has done the thing a budget does not always manage to do: he has reached into the pocket of the working family and left a little more there. Ten billion rand is handed back at the fuel pump in the busiest travelling weeks of the year; every grant is protected and the social wage is grown; the share of government spending that goes to the place where people live is lifted to a tenth for the first time; and the nation’s debt stops climbing for the first time in nearly two decades. The pump, the plate, the pension, and the place you live that is what this budget speaks to. speak today in the name of the African National Congress, and I speak to the people of South Africa to the worker and the pensioner, to the mother in the queue at the clinic, to the young person looking for a first job, to the taxi driver and the small trader, and to every household that counts each rand to the end of the month. Today the Minister of Finance, Comrade Enoch Godongwana, tabled the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement what our people call the mini-budget, the mid-year account of how government is managing the nation's money. The African National Congress welcomes it, supports it without hesitation, and will carry its promises to the people. Let me say plainly what this budget is. It is a People First budget. It puts the needs of the ordinary person before the comfort of the few, and in a hard year it does the thing a budget does not always manage to do — it reaches into the pocket of the working family and leaves a little more there. #MTBPS2026

[IN PICTURES] On a campaign trail, ANC NEC Member, Cde Donald Selamolela addressed community members and ANC volunteers in Ward 9, Alfred Duma Sub-Region, as part of the organisation’s ongoing campaign engagements ahead of the 4 November 2026 Local Government Elections. 📍Josiah Gumede Region, KwaZulu Natal #VoteANC2026 #LetsBuildBetterCommunities

Building a better Mangaung means expanding access to essential services, strengthening communities and creating opportunities for residents. By 2025, water access reached 92.8% and improved sanitation access reached 85.2%. Since 2021, the municipality has also issued 5,729 title deeds and 8,799 Permissions to Occupy, helping provide greater security of tenure. From basic services to homeownership security and public transport, the focus remains on building communities where people can live with dignity and look towards a brighter future. Building dignity. Expanding opportunity. Moving Mangaung forward.​ #VoteAnc2026​ #Letsbuildbettercommunities

ANC Secretary-General Cde Fikile Mbalula briefed members of the media at Chief Albert Luthuli House this afternoon on the ANC’s response to the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement. #MTBPS2026

[IN PICTURES] ANC NEC Member Cde Andile Lungisa conducted a door-to-door campaign at Qunu Informal Settlement, Alfonso VD in Ward 29, Northern Areas, Nelson Mandela Bay Metro. Residents will be relocated to completed houses across the road in Jagvlakte, Dubai, marking tangible progress in providing families with dignified homes. #VoteANC2026 #LetsBuildBetterCommunities