Photo: Flanked by local party officials, South African President Thabo Mbeki (C) cuts a cake at a rally held in the country's Kwa-Zulu Natal province to launch the African National Congress (ANC) election campaign, January 11, 2004. No date has yet been announced for the country's third democratic election, held 10 years after South Africans voted former President Nelson Mandela into power ©REUTERS

The various political parties in South Africa were on Sunday quick to respond following the launch of the African National Congress' (ANC) 2004 election manifesto in KwaZulu-Natal over the weekend. Most vocal of these was the Democratic Alliance (DA) - the ruling party's official opposition. Its leader Tony Leon criticised the ANC on a number of fronts and said the ruling party had failed to deliver on its promises. "Over the past 10 years, the ANC has proved that it is very good at making promises and very bad at delivering on them. He said the ANC's central promise to spend an additional R100-billion over the next 10 years on infrastructure and in an effort to create a million jobs, was ill-conceived. The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said the ANC's election manifesto lacked content and was characterised by "being timid". Musa Zondi, the IFP's spokesman said the document did not have clear proposals for dealing with important issues such as HIV/Aids, job creation, corruption, economic growth and crime eradication. "The most glaring omission is the lack of a comprehensive plan to eradicate HIV/Aids and that the pandemic is not designated as the national emergency it is," said Zondi. However, the New National Party (NNP) said it viewed the manifesto, in both a positive and negative light. "On the positive side is the commitment to job creation, the investment in infrastructure and the deployment of 150,000 police men and women," said NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk. "On the negative side is the glaring omission of the huge challenges facing education and the NNP would have liked to see a more comprehensive approach to fighting crime, including tougher sentences, more courts and the reinstatement of the death penalty for brutal crimes." Patricia De Lille, leader of the Independent Democrats (ID), called the election manifesto, "vague, repetitive and full of rhetoric".