DA Alternative Budget 2014/15: A plan for 6 million REAL jobs
Note to editors: This statement was distributed at a press conference hosted by DA Shadow Minister of Finance, Tim Harris MP; DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Finance, David Ross MP and DA Shadow Minister of Economic Development, Sej Motau MP, to announce the DA's Alternative Budget for 2014/15. The full policy document can be found here.
The DA's comprehensive alternative to the national budget sets out the first steps of our plan to increase economic growth to 8% and help to create 6 million REAL jobs in the next ten years.
It also demonstrates how we would overhaul taxation and expenditure to implement the other key policy proposals from our manifesto, launched in Polokwane yesterday.
Today, our country faces numerous economic challenges and most of them stem from a loss of confidence in the ability of Jacob Zuma's ANC to manage our economy.
Indeed, our unemployment rate has increased from 30% to 34% since President Zuma assumed office. There are 1.4 million more unemployed South Africans today than there were in 2009. And our growth rate is at a lacklustre 2%, far behind our peers on the continent and the developing world.