ANC losing support over rising graft and poverty - Internal report

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) needs to end corruption and party divisions, and deliver on promises to tackle poverty if it is to halt declining voter support, a new policy document said on Sunday.

The ANC has been under pressure to adjust its policies after losing votes at elections last year to the left wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a party that proposes radical redistribution of the economy and land to the black majority.

The report which was released ahead of a party conference on June 30 also talked about reducing unemployment and inequality, ending government corruption and improving economic growth.

President Jacob Zuma called this month for the constitution to be changed so that white-owned land could be redistributed to black South Africans without compensation, a measure long-proposed by the EFF and supported by many poor voters.

The strategy paper said the ANC would not yield to calls by EFF to nationalise mines because it would lead to massive job losses

South Africans are disillusioned by festering inequality.

Black people make up 80 percent of the 54 million population yet, two decades after the end of apartheid, most of the economy remains in the hands of white people, who account for about 8 percent of the population.