2024 ROAD TO VICTORY
Consolidating the Ground Force Towards Socialist Power
OUR LAND & JOBS NOW. STOP LOADSHEDDING!
2024 ELECTION MANIFESTO
THE EFF
JULIUS MALEMA
President & Commander In Chief
FOREWORD BYTHE PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF
The year 2024 marks exactly 30 years since the first inclusive elections in South Africa. As observed in the Founding Manifesto of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the political inclusion in South Africa has hardly translated into observable economic benefits for the majority of the people who were oppressed and exploited under colonialism-cum-apartheid. Black people remain landless, they remain on the margins of economic production and outside of life-enhancing economic participation. The majority of those that participate in the economy do so as suppliers of cheap and easily disposable labour. Landlessness and joblessness among black South Africans are at crisis levels, posing the biggest challenges that confront South African society today.
South Africa is trapped in a vicious cycle of underdevelopment, underperformance and an unpredictable future due to incompetent, directionless, and visionless government. In 2024, South Africa is confronted with a crisis of loadshedding caused by a government that is unable to guarantee dependable and reliable electricity generation, transmission, and distribution to the entire society.
While focusing on clear, implementable, and decisive programmes for all spheres of governance, the EFF’s emphasis for the 2024 general elections will be on LAND, JOBS and ELECTRICITY. Consequently, the EFF’s theme for the 2024 elections is: OUR LAND AND JOBS NOW. STOP LOAD SHEDDING!
The emphasis on LAND derives from the fact that 30 years since the attainment of political freedom, 80% of the population continues to occupy less than 10% of South Africa’s land. Landlessness is still the lived reality of majority of our people.
The emphasis on JOBS is motivated by the sad reality that after 30 years of attempts at addressing the matter, more than 11 million capable South Africans who need jobs are unemployed, with no hope that anything will change unless the current government is changed, while 13 million are not economically active.
The emphasis on NOW is informed by the fact that 30 years is a rather long time for any political party to keep making empty promises. The emphasis on NOW is also because our people live in absolute poverty. Similarly, the emphasis on NOW is because our people are landless. The emphasis on NOW is because our people are jobless. Yet again the emphasis on NOW is because the crises of racialised poverty, inequality, underdevelopment, landlessness and joblessness are being experienced NOW, and must be resolved NOW!
More fundamentally, the emphasis on NOW is because we cannot postpone the true liberation of our people from economic apartheid. We are not part of the 1994 elite pact. We are a completely new generation, with new demands. And our demands, unlike those of the 1994 generation, will not be postponed. We refuse to be silenced with so-called reconciliation. We want justice now. We want our land now. We want jobs now. We demand the economy NOW!
It is our considered view that the political change-over in 1994, did not bring true liberation. It was a bluff which continues to subject black people to economic and social apartheid. This economic apartheid must end now. The demand for land and jobs now is the demand to end apartheid because it is now evident that apartheid did not end in 1994. We are not part of the CODESA and the 1994 transitional compromises, which only focused on taking over political office without the control of the economy. We are a generation that is fighting for true economic emancipation NOW!
The emphasis on STOP LOAD SHEDDING is due to the fact that despite many empty promises, the South African government has not brought forth a dependable electricity plan that will guarantee the supply of electricity to all its citizens.
The economy in South Africa continues today to be under the ownership and control of the white minority settlers, whose ownership and control of land in particular, were gained through settler colonialism and its corollary - the dispossession of the black colonised. Other sectors of the economy, such as the retail chains, industry and the financial sector, are also owned and controlled by the white minority in South Africa. All the means of economic survival and existence continue to be controlled by the white minority. All of this continues to be the case two decades after the country attained political freedom.
The black majority, and Africans in particular, are the numerical majority, yet they continue to be the economic minority, living under difficult conditions and perennially begging for participation in and benefit from what is a white-owned economy linked to the global capitalist system. The few black people who participate in the economy, do so, subject to white approval through a black economic empowerment model that is ostensibly designed to benefit a small number of individuals without ever changing the structural exclusion of the majority.
The post-1994 governments have dismally failed to transfer economic power to the black majority and, even worse, to optimally use government ownership and control of certain state assets for the benefit of all South Africans. Instead, they have reproduced and worsened apartheid economic inequalities, such that a prominent defining characteristic of all post-1994 governments is their perpetuation of economic apartheid defined along racial lines. Whilst political apartheid has been abolished, economic and social apartheid remain a stark reality, evidenced by the fact that poverty is associated with blackness and wealth with whiteness.
The Economic Freedom Fighters has demonstrated in its 10 years of existence, through various interventions and political leadership in different spheres of influence, that it is the only political movement that will bring about real economic change in South Africa. As a movement, we carry collective and individual capacity that will fundamentally change South Africa’s economy in a manner that will allow us to reclaim economic ownership, expand the productive economy, give black people real ownership, create jobs and drive inclusive development.
The EFF’s political programme is the only programme that is embedded in the interests of all South Africans, having been organically developed to meet people’s demands. The manifesto we present hereafter for the 2024 general elections is therefore not a wish list of unattainable goals, but a clear programme of action of what we will do when elected as government of South Africans, having been organically developed to meet people’s demands. The manifesto we present hereafter for the 2024 general elections is therefore not a wish list of unattainable goals, but a clear programme of action of what we will do when elected as government of South Africa.
The EFF Manifesto 2024 is primarily based on three sources:
a) The numerous submissions the EFF received from different sectors through public consultations, which included public meetings, letters to different organisations, social media inputs and oral submissions;
b) The Founding Manifesto of the EFF; and
c) The collective experience the EFF gained through its participation in Parliament, Provincial Legislatures and Municipal Councils.
It is important to highlight that the EFF’s political programme is underpinned by the desire for ECONOMIC FREEDOM IN OUR LIFETIME. This is a generational clarion call that we will never deviate from. The EFF’s manifesto commitments for the 2024 general elections are inspired by as well as based on our movement’s seven cardinal pillars, which constitute the core of our approach to genuine revolutionary transformation of society for the better.
The seven pillars are:
a. Expropriation of South Africa’s land without compensation for equal redistribution in use.
b. Nationalisation of mines, banks and other strategic sectors of the economy, without compensation.
c. Building state and government capacity, which will lead to the abolishment of tenders.
d. Free quality education, health care, houses and sanitation.
e. Massive protected industrial development to create millions of sustainable jobs, including the introduction of minimum wage(s) in order to close the wage gap between the rich and the poor, close the apartheid wage gap and promote rapid career paths for Africans in the workplace.
f. Massive development of the African economy and advocating for a move from reconciliation to justice on the entire continent.
g. Open, accountable, corrupt-free government and society without fear of victimisation by state agencies.
The seven cardinal pillars and all the areas covered by the manifesto are of crucial importance to us in their totality, while specific emphasis is being placed on LAND and JOBS. It is our firm belief that the crisis levels of poverty, inequality, and underdevelopment being experienced in the country can be ended by the reclamation and equitable redistribution of the land and the creation of millions of jobs. The current government has spectacularly demonstrated that it is incapable, both now and in the foreseeable future, to economically empower all South Africans.
The EFF will not prioritise only the creation of jobs, but also the importance of job quality and workplace conditions. Ensuring a good quality of life for workers is equally important. The role of trade unions therefore needs to be specifically guaranteed and protected. The wage gap is also one of the biggest contributors to inequality. Statistics show that in South Africa, the wealthiest three billionaires own more wealth than the poorest 26 million citizens. Globally, it will take four days for the CEOs of the world’s largest fashion companies to earn what a clothing worker in those companies earns in a lifetime. Economic wealth must therefore be transferred from the hands of the few to the hands of the many.
The EFF’s manifesto takes into consideration various domestic, regional, global, geo-political, economic and industrial developments. We particularly take into consideration that we have the obligation to present a credible JOBS strategy in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and artificial intelligence, which could reduce the number of people employed to produce goods and services for a wage. The Manifesto will address these developments in a manner that appreciates reality and yet achieves maximum benefits.
What distinguishes the EFF’s 2024, election manifesto from all other election manifestos is that it makes specific commitments with timelines and clearly specifies areas that will receive the deliverables, illustrating the movement’s readiness and preparedness to govern on behalf of the people in national and provincial government. The era of meaningless and broad promises is over. The EFF’s quantitative and qualitative growth has taught us that we should always stay in contact with the people and understand their demands and aspirations.
Some of the policy innovations contained in this manifesto include:
a) Land redistribution policies which will guarantee land access by all landless people for residential, industrial, cultural, religious and recreational purposes;
b) Multiple special economic zones to promote inward industrialisation and manufacturing investments with export capacity in order to make the ownership and control of the economy demographically representative, expand its productive capacity and create millions of jobs;
c) Doubling of social grants in order to reduce the crisis levels of poverty and boost domestic economic demands and expansion;
d) Usage of legislated state procurement as a boost for localisation and creation of sustainable quality jobs, prioritising women and the youth;
e) Reconfiguration of the spheres of government into national and local spheres and eliminating the provincial sphere in order to redirect resources to impactful service delivery and investments; and
f) Amending the constitution to make the National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) a Chapter 9, institution accountable to Parliament in order to stop selective prosecutions and fight corruption.
g) The EFF government will overhaul the policing system, emphasizing the role of law enforcement in safeguarding human rights and public safety.
Fellow South Africans, Commissars, Fighters, and all Ground Forces, the EFF hereby presents our commitments, a programme of action and a clearly articulated plan on what we will do when elected to govern on behalf of the people. These are not empty promises. They are clear commitments that will be realised under the decisive and capable leadership of the Economic Freedom Fighters. The clarion call is clear: OUR LAND AND JOBS NOW! STOP LOAD SHEDDING NOW! VICTORY IS CERTAIN!
Revolutionary regards,
Julius Malema
***
INTRODUCTION
The EFF’s election manifesto will focus on the key areas set out below. It should be highlighted that each focus area will have a localised expression and jobs dividend.
A. WHERE DOES THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS MOVEMENT COME FROM AND WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED?
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is a revolutionary socialist economic emancipation movement founded in 2013, in South Africa to fight for economic freedom in our lifetime. The EFF is a registered political party with 1200 public representatives in the National Assembly, the National Council of Provinces, Provincial Legislatures and Municipal Councils. Since its formation, the EFF has, among many others, registered the following victories:
1) Through various efforts the EFF led the country into discussing the amendment of the constitution to realise the expropriation of land without compensation for equal redistribution.
2) The EFF used its Parliamentary participation to ensure that the National Assembly adopted a resolution to call on government to close the Israel Embassy in South Africa.
3) The EFF got former President Mr Jacob Zuma to pay back money spent on non-security-related upgrades at his homestead in Nkandla.
4) The EFF held a successful national shutdown on the 20th of March 2023 to demand a stable supply of electricity and the resignation of Cyril Ramaphosa.
The EFF effectively led a political process that stopped the Gupta criminal syndicate from running the country’s government and key state-owned companies.
The EFF used its Parliamentary participation to table the following laws, which will fundamentally change the economic architecture of South Africa to benefit ordinary South Africans:
The National Health Amendment Bill, which will ensure that all clinics in South Africa are open 24 hours a day;
The Insourcing of all Government and State Entities Bill, which will result in the insourcing of all workers who provide constant services to government and state companies;
The ban of Alcohol Advertisement Bill, which will end the celebration and promotion of alcohol consumption in South Africa;
The Banks Amendment Bill, which will lead to the creation of a state-owned bank; and
The Nationalisation of the South African Reserve Bank Bill, which will discontinue private ownership of the central bank. Student cancellation debt, which will cancel all student debts in institutions of higher learning.
The EFF used its Parliamentary participation to table motions which sought to achieve the following:
Provision of free-fee education for the poor at the higher education level, which was rejected by the ruling party; Increase in mineworkers’ salaries and improvement of their working conditions;
Repeal of all apartheid legislation and laws that continue to govern South African society;
Nationalisation of banks and changing how state-owned companies are managed; and
Submission on illicit financial flows, tax avoidance, and base erosion in Parliament as well as to SARS and the Davis Tax Committee.
The EFF led and supported land occupation programmes which resulted in residential land being given to many landless people in all the provinces.
The EFF led a decisive political programme that resulted in the admission of more than 100 000 students to institutions of higher learning without their having to pay any fees.
The EFF’s public representatives and leadership have individually and collectively assisted many communities with:
Implements for agricultural productivity, including tractors; School assistance programmes and bursaries that help hundreds of school children;
School uniforms and vital learning and teaching support materials;
Many labour disputes that prevented racism, dismissals, and retrenchments; and
Legal representation that prevents evictions.
The EFF caucuses at provincial and local levels tabled insourcing bills and motions for the government to disallow anyone to work for government through a third party to provide common services such as cleaning, gardening, security guards, etc.
The EFF in eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality fought for the return of a R1.2 billion conditional grant for infrastructure projects by the National Treasury.
The EFF in Nongoma Local Municipality tabled a motion for the Council to adopt the Andries Tatane cleaning campaign as a municipal programme, and the motion was adopted. The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni has added 1,819 new indigent beneficiaries who now receive free basic water, electricity, and sanitation services. The EFF Caucus in Ekurhuleni introduced motions adopted by council that are being implemented:
a. Insourcing of security guards and cleaners.
b. Publication of the housing beneficiaries list.
c. Removal of the racist Boks statue at all municipal buildings in Boksburg and all buildings of the city.
d. Relocation of our people in ward 09 and ward 90 who were living on the flood line and prone to risk during the rainy season. They have since been allocated in a conducive environment safe for human settlement.
e. Amendment of the indigent policy so as to allow for South African Social Services (SASSA) recipients to be added onto the indigent framework.
f. Establishment of the Ekurhuleni Roads Agency which will mean a greater insourcing of roadworks and stormwater drainage facilities in the city.
15) The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni is collaborating with 55 Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDC) to rollout library and sports programs across the City.
16) The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni has increased revenue by 94%, through the “Siyacima Manje Namhlanje” campaign, maximisation of collection of outdoor advertising revenue, elimination of illegal billboards, and aggressive collection from big businesses.
17) The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni has built internal capacity for municipal workers to maintain municipal buildings.
18) The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni has completed two main reservoirs that now supply water to Kwa Thema and Benoni.
19) The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni has received blue and green drop awards for the high quality of water supplied as well as for the treatment of wastewater under the EFF political leadership.
20) The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni has electrified 2,016 new households through the completion of substations and transformers in Clayville, Mayfield, Tokyo Phase 3, Tsakane, Kwa Thema, and Thokoza.
21) The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni has procured 12 waste compactors as part of building municipal internal capacity for the collection of refuse in the city.
22) The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni has reopened the Rietfontein and Jack landfill sites after they were closed for a year without operating.
23) The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni has amended the indigent policy of the city, increasing the threshold for beneficiaries from R250,000 to R500,000, thereby increasing the number of beneficiaries.
24) The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni introduced a debt rehabilitation scheme that doesn't require a down payment for arrangements on arrears.
25) The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni re-introduced a municipal bursary scheme cancelled by the previous government.
26) The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni purchased 12 new waste compactors as part of building internal municipal capacity for waste collection.
27) The EFF in the City of Ekurhuleni reduced historically overdue payments to service providers from R7 billion to R2 billion within the first 6 months in government.
28) The EFF caucuses in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay tabled successful motions on the insourcing of municipality workers, as a result of which thousands of security guards are now full-time employees with proper salaries at the municipalities.
29) The EFF had Parliament debate the plight of ‘Fees Must Fall’ activists in support of all activists who were arrested and remained behind bars or who were involved in court cases or awaiting trial in prison.
30) The EFF in KwaZulu-Natal tabled a motion for the discontinuation of all contracts with KPMG by the provincial government. The motion was adopted by the provincial legislature.
31) The EFF in Rustenburg tabled a motion to reinstate 100 workers whose employment with the Council had been wrongfully terminated. The motion was adopted by the Council.
32) The EFF in Bela-Bela tabled a motion for a land expropriation programme. As a result, the Council allocated 700 fully serviced stands to deserving recipients.
33) The EFF has helped many people with legal representation, including artists.
34) The EFF fought for the insourcing of workers at institutions of higher learning such as Wits University, University of South Africa (UNISA), University of Kwa Zulu/Natal (UKZN) and University of Pretoria (UP).
35) The EFF introduced secret voting in Parliament.
36) The EFF has gained credibility at institutions of higher learning by constantly winning SRC elections.
37) Wherever the EFF led the SRC, poor students were provided with free sanitary towels and one meal a day.
38) The EFF effectively gave land to 50 000 people who were landless.
39) The EFF helped to remove corrupt government officials at Nelson Mandela, Tshwane, Johannesburg, Thabazimbi, Modimolle, Mogale City and Jozini municipal councils.
40) The EFF has built the confidence of black people and confronted racism everywhere where it encounters it.
41) The EFF is the only party that has a higher gender balance in Parliament, provincial legislature, and municipal councils.
The EFF has had many collective and individual victories in all the provinces and numerous municipalities, some which cannot for reasons of space be included here. In sum it has brought hope to ordinary South Africans and revived their confidence in politics.
B. DIAGNOSIS: WHAT ARE THE CONDITIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA TODAY?
1) The large majority of black South Africans are landless, and the post-1994 governments have cumulatively bought less than 7% of the targeted 30% of land meant for redistribution, over a period of 30 years.
2) More than 40% of South Africans who need jobs are unemployed, meaning that more than nine million South Africans who need jobs and are capable of working cannot find employment. The present government has failed dismally in devising a strategy for creating employment for all, and unemployment has never been below 20% since 1994.
3) The South African governments have consistently, over the past 30 years, adopted a legislative and policy framework according to which service delivery is completely dependent on external service providers and tenders. Thus, the government itself lacks the capability to perform basic/core government functions.
4) The food economy in South Africa is dominated by the white minority at all levels, from land ownership and agricultural production to the packaging and retailing of food - nothing has changed since 1994.
5) The South African economy has not fully developed its productive capacity to provide jobs for millions of unemployed people and is still heavily dependent on the importation of finished goods and products.
6) South Africa’s education system is not well positioned to respond to the Fourth Industrial Revolution due to a lack of high-technology infrastructure, and the post-secondary education and training institutions cannot absorb all learners from secondary schools.
7) South Africa’s health care system excludes a substantial number of South Africans, and the country is, sadly, still far from achieving universal health coverage.
8) Millions of South Africans still reside in unsafe human settlements and remain trapped in poverty.
9) South Africa has extra-ordinarily high levels of crime. An average of 20 000 murders are committed annually, and huge numbers of violent crimes are not properly resolved.
10) Social development and assistance do not deliver impactful results in resolving the massive poverty and inequality challenges.
11) South Africa’s criminal justice system does not serve justice to poor people, and its correctional services system is not corrective.
12) South Africa’s energy plan and capacity are not dependable enough to allow for massive industrialisation and reliable household usage.
13) South Africa’s environmental management does not adequately address the protection of the climate because the country is completely dependent on polluting energy sources.
14) The financial sector in South Africa is owned and controlled by a financial cartel that excludes and discriminates against many people on racial grounds.
15) South Africa’s fiscal architecture permanently incapacitates the state from achieving basic service delivery demands, and taxes are not maximally collected from the private sector.
16) South Africa has trivialised science and technology and thus is not maximising the potential thereof to improve people’s lives.
17) South Africa’s international relations policies are not positioned to maximally benefit the country.
18) Women in South Africa are still at the margins of economic empowerment and are largely excluded from senior positions in both the private and public sectors.
19) People with disabilities are not being optimally taken care of.
20) South Africa’s infrastructure back-log is still massive, particularly in areas where black people reside.
21) The role of traditional leadership is not clearly defined, which leads to abuse of the institution of traditional leadership.
22) South Africa’s architecture of procurement leads to massive corruption in both the private and public sectors.
23) In South Africa, women are violently abused and killed every day. South Africa is thus considered a rape capital.
24) In South Africa, there is no free education.
25) In South Africa, 70% of young people between 15 and 34 years old are unemployed, cannot find work and are not economically active.
26) Data is expensive in South Africa.
27) In South Africa, black people live in dumping sites.
28) In South Africa, drug abuse and gangsterism are prevalent.
29) In South Africa, learnership recipients are paid poorly and exploited.
30) In South Africa, teenage pregnancy is extremely high.
31) In South Africa, violence against the LGBTQI community is prevalent.
In South Africa, anti-black racism and xenophobia against Africans are on the rise.
South Africa’s local government is extremely underfunded. In South Africa, artists are under compensated. Their works are not protected, and many die poor, as a consequence.
In South Africa, women in sports are paid less than their male counterparts.
South Africa has a bloated cabinet with useless deputy ministers.
South Africa still has apartheid murderous.
South Africa still uses an apartheid national anthem.
In South Africa, streets, buildings, towns, and monuments are still named after apartheid icons.
South Africa has one of the highest school dropout rates. South Africa has insufficient learning spaces and accommodation at institutions of higher learning.
South Africa still has schools where children learn under trees or in mud structures and/or must use pit toilets.
South Africa still has bucket toilets.
South Africa still has bogus initiation schools which lead to death.
South Africa still has a huge, widening gap between poor and rich people.
In South Africa, there are still children who walk kilometres to school and back.
Continues...
Issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 10 February 2024. Full PDF can be read here.
