Manifesto 2014

AFRICAN CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY

The African Christian Democratic Party brings to South Africa hope for a strong, healthy prosperous and purpose-driven nation. It is a political party standing for Christian Democratic principles and recognises that vibrant, healthy families are the building blocks of a strong, value-based society. The ACDP stands for a ‘shared future' and is determined to provide reliable, trustworthy leaders who are passionate about addressing the needs and improving the lives of all South Africans. We value unity and diversity and are committed to protecting freedom of religion and family integrity. The ACDP is your hope for a great future!

OUR POLICIES

South Africa is a beautiful and diverse country with tremendous potential for growth and prosperity. However, poverty, unemployment, inequality, violence, crime and corruption, and sub-standard education and healthcare, continue to undermine our progress and credibility on the world stage. Our policies aim to address these challenges, restore integrity and investor confidence, and protect and strengthen families. We are committed to seeing a genuine transformation and renewal in our country that is modelled on value-based norms such as integrity, justice, honesty and respect. Without these values, we will not see the restoration of the moral compass of our nation.

REASONS TO VOTE ACDP

REASON NO 1

Jobs

To boost employment, reduce poverty and achieve annual economic growth of 7%.

The ACDP will:

Ensure that the state provides the enabling environment for business to grow the economy faster and create more jobs by providing the necessary infrastructure, a professional public service and good education and vocational training to ensure the necessary skills base needed for a growing economy;

Raise global competitiveness and foreign earnings by focusing on South Africa's comparative advantages, such as mining, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, tertiary education, tourism and business services;

Increase public sector investment in infrastructure to provide sufficient power generation, ports, roads, public transportation and dams and reservoirs;

Review the Gauteng e-tolling system and consider alternative funding models, such as the fuel levy, to finance road construction and maintenance;

Encourage domestic and foreign investment through policy certainty and building confidence in the county's growth potential;

Ensure that fiscal policy is sustainable by reviewing government expenditure  programmes and eliminating wasteful, irregular and corrupt expenditure;

Shift the focus of government expenditure from consumption to capital investment;

Support small businesses by facilitating access to financial assistance and mentorship programmes and review the cumbersome regulatory environment;

Review labour legislation and collective bargaining to remove obstructions to growth and address tense labour relations (that often result in violent strikes), within the framework of fair labour practices;

Encourage productivity and a culture of savings, investment, the patient building of capital and hard work;

Ensure that economic empowerment results in broader socio-economic upliftment, such as  workers' share schemes, rather than the current pervading culture of enrichment that mainly benefits a small group of politically-connected persons;

Lower the barrier to entry for young job seekers by extending the youth wage subsidy;

Encourage training and development within industries through grants and tax incentives for apprenticeships and labour-intensive practices;

Increase trade with countries with fast-growing markets such as Asia, Brazil and Africa;

Promote stricter standards of international financial governance to reduce the risk of another global financial meltdown; and

Ensure that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are more democratic and transparent. 

REASON NO 2

Welfare

The social wage, which includes social welfare grants, is necessary in the short-term to address poverty and inequality.

The ACDP will:

Address poverty and inequality through an increased social wage, vastly improved education and skills development, resulting in rising employment and higher earnings;

Increase the social wage, which includes the provision of sufficient social welfare grants and pensions, linked to cost-of-living increases;

Discourage ongoing dependency on the state in the medium- to long-term by job creation through sound economic policies; and

Increase the number of social workers and community development workers to respond to the need for better social welfare services.

REASON NO 3

Safety

Violent crime is rampant in South Africa because perpetrators are not swiftly apprehended, tried, convicted and sentenced.

The ACDP will:

Implement a zero-tolerance anti-crime strategy;

Strengthen all police units and ensure comprehensive training to improve the capacity to investigate and prosecute crime successfully;

Establish more police stations, forensic laboratories, courts and better trained and equipped prosecutors and other personnel;

Ensure a coordinated law-enforcement approach for Metropolitan Police, the South African Police Service (SAPS) and private security companies; 

Provide access to pre-trial services, including victim and witness support;

Implement Restorative Justice programmes for minor offences, incorporating restitution to victims of crime and community service;

Ensure that heavier sentences are imposed with minimum sentences for certain categories of crime;

Review the parole system and deny bail for certain categories of crime such as murder, rape, armed robbery and car hijacking;

Broaden prison labour programmes where prisoners will learn various skills and contribute to the cost of their board and lodging;

Review the National Rural Safety Strategic Plan involving all stakeholders to ensure all rural dwellers, and in particular farmers and their workers, are more adequately protected; and

Build a relationship of trust in communities and encourage community participation in crime prevention by strengthening community police forums and properly training and equipping public order police units to prevent unnecessary loss of life, particularly during protest action.

REASON NO 4

Integrity

Corruption is stealing our country's future. Integrity is the internal compass we must all carry.

The ACDP will:

Ensure that the Protection of State Information law is not used to prevent journalists, citizens and whistleblowers from exposing corruption by the state departments;

Reintroduce the Scorpions and strengthen the Auditor-General, Public Protector, SAPS, Special Investigating Unit, Asset Forfeiture Unit, and National Prosecuting Authority and ensure that these institutions are properly staffed and resourced, and protected from political interference;

Ensure that public officials who are accused of corrupt conduct are speedily prosecuted and not suspended indefinitely on full pay, as is the current practice and, where found guilty, held personally liable to refund the state; and

Ensure that National Treasury and Public Accounts Committees at local, provincial and national levels are exercising effective oversight over public finances, including state tenders.

REASON NO 5

Education

Education develops a nation's character and determines its future prosperity.

The ACDP will:

Prioritise basic skills of reading, writing and numeracy;

Prioritise access to early childhood development facilities from 0-7 years;

Provide free education to learners in certain schools and subsidies to ensure access to education for all learners;

Review the school pass rate to address the disjuncture between the standard of Matric and that required by tertiary institutions;

Increase bursaries for tertiary education, with added incentives for those learners who achieve a 80% Matric pass rate and/or who pass their first year of tertiary studies successfully;

Re-open and effectively equip training colleges and promote teaching as a profession;

Attract and retain skilled and experienced teachers through better remuneration, working conditions and career opportunities;

Introduce professional certification for newly qualified teachers and entry level qualification for principals to ensure competence;

Reintroduce school inspectors to monitor the standard of teaching;

Review and improve adult education and provide communities with a range of family-friendly learning services including drama, dance, music, sport and languages; 

Provide for special education needs through suitably resourced special and mainstream schools;

Train and empower educators to deal with undisciplined and disruptive children and involve parents in this process;

Remove gangsterism, weapons, drugs and alcohol from schools;

Strengthen school governing bodies and school management teams;

Introduce incentive schemes linked to regular assessments to reward schools for improvements, as well as recognising top performing public and private schools as national assets; and

Limit the impact of trade unions on the teaching profession and appointment and promotion of principals.

REASON NO 6

Health

Preventative primary healthcare and good nutrition is the cornerstone of the ACDP's Health Policy.

The ACDP will:

Ensure the provision of clean water and proper sanitation and that basic health and hygiene is taught from primary school level upwards;

Make HIV/Aids a notifiable disease and extend the roll-out of antiretroviral treatment and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission programmes;

Prioritise public awareness campaigns to promote abstinence from premarital sex and fidelity;

Focus on efforts to contain and eliminate tuberculosis (TB) with a particular emphasis on extreme and multi-drug resistant TB;

Educate and inform the public about the dangers of obesity and its health consequences;

Intervene to significantly reduce maternal and child mortality;

Improve public hospital services and ensure better equipped and properly remunerated medical staff;

Ensure that hospital revitalisation is a top priority by facilitating public-private partnerships;

Implement the National Health Insurance scheme in a phased manner to broaden access to health services and improve the quality of care in public hospitals and clinics;

Provide additional incentives for doctors working in the private sector to render sessional services in the public sector;

Fill vacant posts with skilled, competent and committed medical practitioners and managers, with certification for hospital managers;

Increase the number of trained community health workers to implement community-based primary health care and introduce holistic family healthcare interventions;

Cautiously consider the use of genetically modified organisms in food, given that their health effects have not been properly quantified.

Support alternative, renewable energy, adherence to global environmental standards and clean technology, given that our physical well-being is largely dependent on what we eat, drink and breathe.

REASON NO 7

Housing & Land

Respect property ownership and extend this to as many as possible.

The ACDP will:

Upgrade informal settlements, as well as reduce the risk of flooding and fire, and replace the bucket system with proper sanitation;

Promote the development of affordable housing through the provision of community-owned self-help schemes;

Ensure the use of new technology to provide alternative housing models;

Encourage the development of sustainable communities with health, education, socio-economic and recreational facilities;

Review and establish a comprehensive data-base of persons on waiting lists for housing;

Ensure safe, reliable and affordable public transport as well as ensuring that spatial development frameworks improve the balance between job location and people;

Prioritise access to suitable accommodation through public-private initiatives;

Protect property rights, prioritise the finalisation of existing land restitution claims and address land reform within applicable constitutional parameters;

Promote agricultural development to ensure food security and assist small and subsistence farmers to become commercially viable; and

Focus on rural development to address issues that arise from urban migration, by encouraging local economic development   and incentives for industries to relocate to rural areas.

REASON NO 8

Family

Healthy families are the building blocks of a strong, value-based society.

The ACDP will:

Support programmes, activities and initiatives that seek to strengthen and promote strong healthy families; and

Amend laws and policies that undermine family values, such as access to contraceptives and abortion by children without parental consent; inappropriate sex education in schools; attempts to ban moderate parental chastisement and legalise prostitution; and the legislation of pornography and abortion-on-demand. 

The ACDP is committed to implement these policies to ensure a safe, healthy and prosperous nation. 

The ACDP stands for Christian principles, freedom of religion, a free market economy with a social conscience, family values, community empowerment and human rights in a federal system.  

Issued by the ACDP, February 22 2014

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