South African President Thabo Mbeki's party vowed on Sunday to do what it has struggled to do during a decade in power - defeating poverty and unemployment the way it did apartheid.
The ANC, which under anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela led the drive to end white minority rule and bring in democracy in 1994, is expected to call elections in March or April and is gearing up for a campaign it looks certain to win.
The party has set itself impressive goals, pledging to halve unemployment and poverty by 2014 through public spending of some 100 billion rand ($15 billion) on road, rail and air transport and telecommunications.
While the ANC has been given credit for providing housing and clean water to millions of people, analysts have said the party, which has pursued conservative fiscal policies, needs to do more to address the scourge of poverty.
Ten years after the ANC came to power, the country remains saddled with yawning income disparities.
Economic liberalisation has been blamed for the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs and an unemployment rate of over 30 percent.
"The government that we'll elect later this year is a government that keeps its promises," Mbeki told 30,000 ANC supporters packing a stadium as he launched the ANC's 2004 election campaign.
Mbeki, who succeeded Mandela as president in 1999, drew cheers from supporters who overflowed the stadium. An ANC spokesman said up to 15,000 were watching on screens outside the stadium, mostly sitting on the ground under the hot sun.