ANC's 5th NGC: A Line in the Sand – Youth, Women and the Social Transformation Mission

A movement that cannot protect its people cannot renew itself. A state that cannot guarantee safety, dignity and opportunity loses moral authority. A democracy that cannot hold its young and its women breaks its own future.

This NGC arrives at a moment when the pain in our communities is no longer abstract. It is carried in bodies, households, classrooms, clinics and streets. It is visible in the silence of young men who have given up, in the exhaustion of women who carry both care and survival on their shoulders, and in the anger of communities left behind by a state that once promised liberation.

This NGC must respond to most South Africans who are asking a simple question: will anything change in my actual life? If renewal does not change what happens to women in their homes, to children in their schools, to youth on their streets and in their WhatsApp groups, then this NGC will have produced documents, not a different country.

If economic transformation is the backbone of the next phase of the National Democratic Revolution, then social transformation is its heart.

This is where renewal becomes real. Not in conference halls, but in the everyday life of our people.

1. GBVF: A National Disaster and the Test of the ANC’s Soul

The President and the entire NGC has rightly foregrounded GBVF as a national disaster. But declarations are meaningless if they do not shift practice. For women, children and queer people in townships, rural villages and suburbs, GBVF is not a policy theme. It is the background noise of their lives. They already know what the statistics tell us: justice is slow, police stations are understaffed, forensic backlogs stretch for months, shelters are underfunded, and communities live with fear as a daily companion.

Three hard truths:

• GBVF is not only a crime problem. It is a governance, economic and cultural problem.
• GBVF thrives where the state is weak and communities are fractured.
• The measure of this NGC is whether women feel safer by 2026.Let this NGC ensure that:
• Establish a GBVF Command Centre in every district, linked to SAPS, Health, Social Development and specialised prosecutors.
• Ring-fence funding for shelters and psychosocial services to minimum standards.
• Mandate case-tracking dashboards at station level accessible to community structures.
• Implement a national offenders register usable by employers, schools and communities.

“If women are not safe, the nation is not sovereign.”

2. Youth: The Motive Force of the New Democratic Phase

Youth unemployment is the single greatest fracture in our democracy. But the crisis extends beyond jobs: it is about belonging, agency, identity and safety.

Youth today live between two worlds. In the digital world they have voice. In the real world they are ignored. That contradiction fuels despair, addiction, crime and political cynicism.

Part 6 set out the Youth Economic Mission.

Part 8 must deal with the social, psychological and civic dimensions of youth empowerment.

Key pillars:

• Education-to-work pathways, especially TVET–industry pipelines
• A National Youth Community Service programme linked to skills and civic work
• Safe public spaces and night-time transport for young women
• Digital skills hubs in townships and rural towns
• Youth representation in all ward committees
• A comprehensive mental health strategy integrated into schools and clinics

ANC branches must become youth-organising centres again, not meeting venues.

“A nation that does not build its youth will be rebuilt by its prisons.”

3. Women’s Leadership: From Representation to Power

South Africa does not have a “women participation” problem. It has a “women power” problem.

Women are at the centre of community survival. They run early childhood centres, health outreach, food kitchens, faith spaces, stokvels, school committees and neighbourhood safety structures. Yet they remain marginal in the spaces where budgets, security and policy direction are decided.

Reform pillars for NGC resolution:

• Gender budgeting across all spheres of state
• Mandatory 50% women leadership in municipal committees, caucuses and oversight portfolios
• Protection protocols for women whistleblowers
• Recognition and funding of the care economy: ECDs, home-based care, community health workers
• Economic empowerment frameworks embedded in procurement, not tacked on through slogans

“Women do not need inclusion. They need authority.”

4. Education, Health and STI: The Second Liberation

The first generation liberated the vote.

The next generation must liberate knowledge and care.

Education remains the most reliable predictor of freedom. Yet our country still battles with reading for meaning, uneven teaching quality, under-resourced TVETs and a health system stretched beyond capacity.

This NGC must elevate education and health from portfolio items to national development priorities. Without human capital, no industrialisation is possible. Key directives:

• Mastery of reading, numeracy and digital literacy by Grade 4 as a national performance indicator
• TVET repositioning as the backbone of industrial training, not the last choice for poor youth
• Expansion of primary healthcare teams, including mental health practitioners
• National STI innovation fund drawing universities, scientists and industry together
• A 24-month plan to stabilise health infrastructure, equipment procurement and staff morale

“We defeated apartheid with political education. We will defeat poverty with scientific education.”

5. Arts, Culture, Heritage and Sport: The Soul of the Nation and the Battle of Ideas

Part 7 explained how the global war of ideas shapes geopolitics.

Part 9 will show how narrative warfare reshapes elections and democracy.

Part 8 deals with the ground where identity is formed.

Culture is not entertainment. It is memory, healing, imagination and power.

Grassroots cultural production has carried communities through trauma. Local sport clubs keep children alive. Theatre, music and visual arts reclaim dignity and create employment. Archives ensure we do not lose our story to those who distort it.

Required interventions:

• Community arts funding restored and ring-fenced
• Township and rural sport leagues supported with facilities and transport
• Public broadcasters mandated to source 60 percent local content
• Heritage digitisation programmes, including struggle archives
• Cultural workers recognised as an economic workforce with labour protections

“A nation that loses its story loses its future.”

6. National Dialogue: Not an Event, a Civic Infrastructure

The President announced the National Dialogue process housed at NEDLAC.

This is welcome, but insufficient.

Dialogue must be localised, permanent and accessible. Not elite panels. Not hotel conferences. Real participatory platforms in local civic centres and community halls.

Model:

• Ward-level civic forums convened quarterly
• Faith communities as dialogue anchors
• Youth and women assemblies as formal advisory structures
• Labour, traditional authorities and civic formations integrated into local problem-solving

Let dialogue become a governance tool, not a slogan.

7. Commission-Ready Resolutions for Immediate Adoption

• GBVF District War Rooms with minimum national standards
• National Youth Commission must create District Youth Community Service with skills, stipends and civic pathways
• Gender budgeting and enforced 50 percent leadership representation
• Education and health non-negotiables: literacy, digital skills, primary healthcare
• Fully indexed arts and culture funding to support community-based healing and creativity
• Local Dialogue Forums as permanent civic infrastructure

Final Message: The Human Face of Renewal

If Parts 1 to 7 deal with strategy, power, economy and the state, then Part 8 answers the only question that ultimately matters: What kind of people are we becoming? Are we becoming better human beings? Political renewal means nothing if it does not make life safer for women, more dignified for workers, more hopeful for youth and more human for all.

A South Africa where women still walk in fear, where youth live on the margins, where schools and clinics are broken, and where our stories are only of pain, is not what we struggled for. Renewal will be real when a girl can walk home safely, when a boy can see a path from school desk to decent work, when a worker can trust the clinic and the union, and when our music and stories sound more like healing than despair.

This is the line in the sand.

“A revolution that cannot heal its people has already lost its way. A movement that rebuilds dignity rebuilds the nation.”

* Faiez Jacobs is a former  Member of Parliament, founder of The Transcendence Group, Capetonian, Activist, and Servant of the People.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.