THE PEOPLE'S MANDATE
RECLAIMING OUR BIRTH RIGHT
A MANIFESTO TOWARDS A DEVELOPMENTAL AGENDA
PREAMBLE
We the people of South Africa recognise that:
1. The 1994 breakthrough that seemed to be a strategic victory for our people has turned into a strategic defeat.
2. South African society is adrift from its core values, and it is struggling with moral decay.
3. Compounding these issues is a liberal constitution that constrains the political influence of the majority.
4. In practice, the true wielders of power are unelected institutions and those with money.
5. Our prolonged period of national shame since 1652 is a result of inadequate scientific, industrial, financial, and military capabilities.
6. The foundational issues of poverty, unemployment, and inequality stem from the theft of land and mineral resources.
7. Post-apartheid reconstruction efforts cannot be pursued through neoliberal policies that prioritise the market over state intervention.
8. Neoliberal policies under this failed government worsened unemployment, poverty, and inequality akin to apartheid-era conditions.
We recommit ourselves through the MK Party and our People's Mandate to fight this injustice. We declare that we will defeat this neo-apartheid by:
1. Re-centering our country on African cultural, and moral values accommodative of various spiritual beliefs and persuasions.
2. Moving our country away from constitutional supremacy toward unfettered parliamentary supremacy.
3. Expropriating all land without compensation and transferring ownership to the people under state and traditional leadership custodianship.
4. Nationalising the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), major banks, and insurance companies to reduce the dominance of private finance over our economy.
5. Nationalising strategic mines, ArcelorMittal and Sasol and revitalising our state owned enterprises (SOEs) to fulfil their developmental roles, and spur economic growth.
6. Ensuring free, mandatory, high-quality education from early childhood to postgraduate level to boost human capital and research capability.
7. Providing permanent jobs fall capable and willing workers at a basic salary of R4500, with training and skills opportunities.
8. Ensuring that every young person reaching the age of 18 serves a year of military service to cultivate discipline and patriotism among our youth.
A. PILLAR 1: RECLAIMING OUR DIGNITY
Recognising that:
- South African society is dominated culturally, artistically, spiritually, and economically by a minority group with an alien culture.
- Due to compromises made in 1994 and our apparent acceptance of our defeat, indigenous African languages and culture remain marginalised.
- African cultural and moral values are undermined by a significant share of the population who prefer the dominant Western ways.
- Many of our children grow up disconnected from their heritage, losing the ability to speak African languages, and moving away from ancestral traditions and values.
- This cultural dislocation compounds the difficulties faced by African communities, who find themselves trapped in cycles of poverty and exploitation.
Consequently:
- South African society, removed from its foundational values, grapples with moral degradation.
- We see high rates of teenage pregnancy and appalling crimes against vulnerable children, the elderly, and women.
- We see a proliferation of an alien capitalist culture prioritising money over Ubuntu/Botho and fostering crass materialism.
To reclaim our dignity as a people the MKP will:
- Establish indigenous languages as mandatory official languages taught in schools from grade zero to grade 12, used in higher education, legal proceedings, and all official state communication.
- Eliminate all remnants of colonialism and apartheid from cultural and political life.
- Include a mandatory subject into the education curriculum focusing on African history, values, ethics, and morals, with special attention to gender relations.
- Ensure that national culture and the arts affirm our African heritage.
- Ensure that national culture and the arts promote the principle of social justice, discourage crass materialism and all forms of elitism.
- Collaborate with faith-based, cultural groups, and creatives to implement a national education programme focusing on African spiritual and moral values.
- Ensure that every young person reaching the age of 18 serves a year of military service to cultivate discipline and patriotism among our youth.
- Repatriate and rebury the bodies of all our heroes who fell in foreign lands.
B. PILLAR 2: RECLAIMING OUR LAND AND MINERAL RESOURCES
Recognising that:
- The foundational issues of poverty, unemployment, and inequality stem from the theft of land and mineral resources.
- Land dispossession in South Africa stripped deprived indigenous populations of their dignity and assets, reducing them to exploitation as labourers for Western colonizers.
- Economic marginalisation persists to this day as access to credit and money is limited to those with land ownership.
- Agriculture, a sector with significant potential for employment and economic activity, can be unleashed by equitable land reform.
- China, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam, for instance, achieved remarkable development over 50 years based on equitable land reform.
- Fair land distribution in these countries boosted agricultural productivity, reduced rural poverty, and set the stage for sustained transformative economic growth of 8-10% a year over decades.
Further recognising that:
- Apartheid-era spatial inequalities persist as human settlements are built in areas distant from economic hubs, perpetuating the geographical divide.
- Urban homelessness, therefore, is a direct consequence of apartheid and colonial land theft.
- The exploitation of our mineral wealth by settlers and external powers has led to capital flight and hindered local industrial development, and technological upgrading.
- Large dividend and interest payments are made to foreigners, especially since large SA mining companies listed in London,
- Additionally, there is significant under invoicing in minerals like gold, silver, platinum, and diamonds.
Consequently, due to land and mineral resources theft:
- South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates globally at 42% exceeding strife-torn Gaza and the West Bank, Djibouti, and Kosovo.
- Unemployment is racialised - over 42 percent of Black South Africans were unemployed in the first three months of 2023, while the jobless rate is only 7.5 percent among white people.
- According to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHR(), whereas 64% of blacks are poor, only 1% of white South Africans live in poverty.
- Black African children, compared to other races, suffer from highest proportion of multidimensional poverty, at 68.3%.
- South Africa is the most unequal country in the world - the top 10% of South African wealth holders own more than 85% of household wealth.
- The top 0.01% (about 3,500 adults) own a higher share of wealth than the bottom 90% (about 32 million individuals).
- Dividend and interest payments to foreigners fully account for the current account deficit
- Capital flight continues unabated - natural resource exports were underreported by
$146 billion over the 1998-2017 period.
To reclaim our land and mineral resources and address inequality, poverty, and unemployment, the MKP focusses on the following:
1. On Land, we will:
- Expropriate all land without compensation, transferring ownership to the people under the custodianship of the state and traditional leaders.
- Establish guidelines for the state to lease land to citizens for various purposes and based on a comprehensive national development plan.
- Equitably distribute farmland and divide it up on an equal basis among the farming population.
- Provide financial aid, research support, and marketing guidance to newly settled farmers to ensure their success.
2. On Natural resources, we will:
- Ensure state ownership and control of all natural resources on behalf of the South African people, including water, spectrum, and renewable energy resources.
- Direct the use of natural resources towards long-term productive development, ensuring intergenerational equity.
- Nationalise strategic mining firms and regulate private capital participation in resource exploitation.
- Restrict the export of strategic raw minerals, prioritising beneficiation, and value-added products for export.
- Force the relisting of major South African companies on the JSE (Johannesburg Stock Exchange).
- Ensure state leadership in exploration, extraction, processing, and marketing of natural resources through the African Exploration Mining Finance Corporation (AEMFC).
- Explore the payment of financial reparations to the victims of colonialism and apartheid and their descendants, including losses suffered by the Khoisan people.
C. PILLAR 3:
RECLAIMING PEOPLE'S POWER
Recognising that:
- The constitution of the South African state is colonial, founded on Roman-Dutch law, with very little influence of African jurisprudence.
- African traditional leadership, while de jure recognised, is de facto treated as auxiliary with no role in the development of law and policies, or participation in state administration.
- Efforts are underway to transition South Africa from a unitary state to a federal structure.
- Efforts are underway for some provinces to secede from the rest of South Africa.
Further recognising that:
- Post-apartheid reconstruction cannot be facilitated by a liberal constitution that constrains the political power of the majority.
- Post-apartheid reconstruction cannot be facilitated by a liberal constitution that has the most extensive legal protections for the former oppressor.
- Property relations cannot be transformed by a liberal constitution that privileges the property rights of land thieves over the property rights of the dispossessed masses.
- The only unconstrained power by the liberal constitution is the power of money.
Consequently, due to the liberal constitution:
- The strategic breakthrough in 1994 has turned into a strategic defeat for the black majority.
- De facto and de jure, unelected institutions and those with money are our true rulers, not the elected representatives of the people.
- The South African state politically protects the interests of white monopoly capitalists.
- The mass of the African working people is powerless over the state, their aspirations do not find expression in key state policies.
- Since 1994, poverty, unemployment, and inequality have not been remedied through incremental government programmes acceptable to our true rulers.
To reclaim our sovereignty, the MKP with a decisive two-thirds majority will:
- Hold a referendum to scrap the 1996 constitution and replace it with a parliamentary system with or without a codified constitution.
- Establish a lower house of parliament comprised of elected representatives and an upper house comprised of Indigenous kings and queens as well as other traditional leaders.
- Reduce the number of provinces from the current nine to four and re-demarcate provincial boundaries.
- Introduce a new administrative arm of local government, the traditional government sphere, to discharge the development responsibilities in areas under their authority.
- Restructure the legal profession to ensure that it is unified, diversified and transformed to be representative of black and female practitioners.
D. PILLAR 4: RECLAIMING OUR ECONOMY
Recognising that:
- Post-apartheid reconstruction efforts in South Africa have favoured neoliberal market policies over government intervention.
- The current government's IMF-backed Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP) focuses on cutting human capital and research and development (R&D) spending and privatizing State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
- The ERRP, supported by COSATU unions, prioritises easing labour market reforms, which will negatively impact workers.
- Key sectors supplying key inputs to society and industry such as Electricity, Telecommunications, Transport, and Water face privatisation or "private sector participation" and huge price increases through "cost-reflective tariffs".
- However, no developing country has achieved notable economic growth through the IMF's neoliberal policies.
- Besides land reform, China, Japan, South Korea etc. fostered transformative growth and technological advancement by limiting foreign capital, prioritising stable domestic savings, and directing credit to tradeable sectors while repressing the financial sector.
- Yet speculative foreign portfolio flows remain the primary financing tool in South Africa despite their inconsistency.
- Private banks focus on consumption and unsecured lending rather than stimulating economic diversification and industrial growth.
- Questionable credit allocation policies by the Prudential Authority that encourage parasitic lending exacerbate these challenges.
- Questionable reputational risk policies by the Prudential Authority encourage the closure of political opponents' bank accounts thereby sending a chilling message to business and society.
- Furthermore, the narrow mandate of the partially foreign-owned South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is not supportive of economic diversification and industrial growth.
Further recognising that:
- Development Finance Institutions (DFls) mostly act like banks, not prioritizing funding for industrialisation or small businesses in tradeable sectors owned by Black people, military veterans, women, and youth owned business (designated groups).
- Sub-optimal regulation stifles the growth of Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs), or small businesses owned by designated groups.
- Sub-optimal government procurement policies hinder the growth of SMMEs owned by designated groups.
- The ownership element in Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has reinforced white oligopoly power and hindered the emergence of businesses owned by designated groups.
Consequently:
- South Africa has struggled to industrialise and move away from the colonial practice of exporting raw minerals, with the minerals sector remaining primarily focused on exports rather than beneficiation.
- Since 2018, critical infrastructure has deteriorated, with trains inoperative, expensive, and intermittent electricity supply, dilapidated roads, and prolonged water shortages.
- Increasingly, we see the commodification of electricity, water, and transport because of those who seek to profit from the provision of basic services.
- Labour rights are being systematically decimated with agreed upon salary increases not being implemented.
- Rather than experiencing technological upgrading and growth, the South African economy has stagnated.
- Long-term interest rates are very high and volatile as "foreign speculators", the marginal price setters, sell the longer-dated bonds at the first sign of any shock.
- Short-term interest rates are very high and volatile as the SARB uses them as the only macro-stabilisation tool.
- Despite "high investor confidence", significant fixed investment in national development has not materialised, instead, capital is leaving the country.
- The gross investment ratio in 2023 at 15% of gross domestic product (GDP) is lower than in the decade of the 1980s when South Africa faced civil strife.
- Even at these low rates of investment, South Africa still runs a persistent current account deficit financed by volatile portfolio flows.
- BEE has failed, businesses owned by individuals from marginalised communities, including Black, women, and youth entrepreneurs, persistently face marginalisation.
- The costs of exchange and interest rate volatility are borne by new entrants, SMMEs, Black, women and youth owned businesses in tradable sectors, especially, in manufacturing.
To reclaim and develop our economy, the MKP focusses on the following:
1. On Macro-economic policy, we will:
- End austerity and neoliberalism and prioritise investing in human capital and R&D to foster technological upgrading and economic diversification.
- Respect labour's hard-won rights and ensure that negotiated terms of employment are not undermined by employers or government.
- Review tax expenditures on traditional industry and mining and re-orient fiscal policy to support SMMEs in tradeable sectors towards an outward-orientation and export performance.
- Use macro-prudential, fiscal, and monetary policies as short-term macroeconomic stabilisers of the economy and not just the short-term interest rate to reduce interest rate volatility.
- Use macro-prudential, fiscal, and monetary policies to eliminate the current account deficit.
- Accumulate foreign reserves and set-up a Sovereign Wealth Fund to reduce exchange rate volatility and protect the economy against commodity cycles.
- Revamp the Social Security system by implementing a compulsory pension and housing fund modelled on Singapore's Central Provident Fund Board (CPFB) for all employed workers to bolster domestic savings and consequently, increase investment to 30% of gross domestic product (GDP).
- Eliminate reliance on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the resources sector and place greater relative emphasis on developing domestic firms in manufacturing and tradeable services.
- Review and re-impose some exchange controls to maintain tight controls on international capital flows.
2. On Financial Sector policy, we will:
- Nationalise the SARB and reconstitute it so that it has a strong developmental focus, rooted in a network of development financial institutions (DFls).
- Review the mandate and capitalisation of DFls and reorient them towards funding economic diversification and technological upgrading.
- Establish a network of state-owned banks, including policy/sectoral banks with focussed mandates.
- Separate the Prudential Authority from the SARB to minimise conflict of interests.
- Ensure that the Prudential Authority oversees banks to ensure transparent handling of reputational risks, enabling citizens critical of the state to engage in economic activities without fear of arbitrary bank account closures.
- Nationalise all the large banks and the large insurance companies, to break the power of private monopoly finance over the economy.
- "Window guide" all credit creation using revised Basel risk-weights to support productive activities, Black people, women, and youth owned businesses in tradeable sectors.
- Review Regulation 28, so that South African savings are used to finance national development.
- Restrict foreign ownership of the financial system and foreign ownership of sovereign debt.
- Reduce bank credit creation/funding for short-term speculation and individual consumption, in particular, unsecured lending.
- Re-introduce the Usury Act limits amended by the Usury Exemption Notice of 1999 in the revised National Credit Act.
- Remove all negative entries from the Credit Bureau resulting from unsecured/parasitic lending.
- Shorten the duration a debtjudgment can appear on a consumer's profile to three years.
3. On SOE policy, we will:
- Review and repeal all privatisation agreements, the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) programme, and the unbundling of Eskom.
- Reverse and rescind the Un-Just Transition from coal, renew Eskom's coal fleet and accelerate Eskom's Nuclear New Build program.
- Revive and recapacitate the deliberately collapsed SOEs through financial restructuring, enhancing operational efficiency and strengthening corporate governance structures.
- Reverse the policies that seek to privilege private capital at the expense of the state in the provision of water infrastructure.
- Reverse the privatization of the Durban container terminal and bring the Richards Bay Coal Terminal under 100% state-ownership through Transnet.
- Scrap and replace the current National Rail Policy which favours private capital at the expense of the state.
- Ensure that key state SOEs provide cheap electricity, water, and transport for citizens and industry.
- Bring SAA back to 100% state ownership by reviewing and repealing the Takatso deal.
On Industrial and SMME policy, we will:
- Re-draft the National Development Plan on a scientific basis, placing industrialisation, a developmental financial system, and the optimal use of our national resources at the centre.
- Reverse the process of de-industrialisation by ensuring that the costs of production inputs in the manufacturing sector are low.
- Reconstitute the vertically integrated system in the steel sector, by renationalising ArcelorMittal in pursuit of our beneficiation strategy.
- Nationalise SASOL so that it secures liquid fuels supply and provides developmentally priced petroleum and basic chemical products in the domestic economy.
- Aggressively pursue the strategy of Special Economic Zones to re-ignite small town and rural economies to address uneven spatial economic development.
- Establish a consolidated approach by DFls (IDC, NEF, PIC, etc.) to funding SMMEs.
- Through credit guidance, provide set targets for lending to Black people, women, military veteran and youth owned SMMEs in mining, agriculture, and manufacturing.
- Review and repeal regulatory barriers that stifle SMMEs, Black, women and youth owned business (PFMA, CIDB, etc.)
- Review procurement regulations to encourage technological upgrading, economic diversification and the participation of Black, women, and youth owned SMMEs in the economy.
- Move away from the current BEE model which emphasises Black, women and youth acquisition of minority shares, without underlying control of production, employment, and investment decision.
E. PILLAR 5: BUILDING OUR HUMAN CAPITAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITIES
Recognising that:
- Our period of national shame since 1652 emanated from a lack of scientific, industrial, financial, and military capabilities.
- During apartheid, the government implemented Bantu education to prepare Black children for manual labour and low-skilled jobs.
- The current government persistently underfunds school infrastructure and neglects mother tongue education, and corruption thrives with the sale of teacher positions.
- The Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) face governance, funding, quality, and relevance of skills development initiatives challenges that impact their effectiveness.
- The South African University system faces capacity constraints, it is not able to accommodate all the matriculants who qualify for university.
- The South African Health System is divided, with one part having excessive resources serving a minority, while the other part, serving over 80% of the population, is severely under-resourced.
- Over 80% of South Africans consult traditional healers, yet little effort has been made to integrate traditional healing into the mainstream health system despite the National Traditional Healers Act.
- South Africa's colonial history left it without a comprehensive social security system, disproportionately affecting black communities.
- Child support grants fall short in addressing malnutrition and child development, while old-age and disability pensions fail to ensure a decent living standard, particularly for those caring for grandchildren.
Further recognising that:
- Progress over the last 30 years on building our human capital and technological capabilities has been sporadic and inconsistent.
- The innovation system is weak- poor collaboration between academia, industry, and government hinders knowledge sharing, technology transfer, and collaborative research initiatives.
- SARB through stringent customer due diligence (CDD), know-your-customer (KYC), and anti-money laundering (AML) laws seemingly deliberately frustrates the growth of FinTechs and other mobile money operators to protect the banking oligopoly.
Consequently:
- We see continued subservience to white South Africans, with the state failing to develop the human capital and R&D capability of its population.
- South Africa's research and development (R&D) spending as a proportion of gross domestic product remains at 0,83%, well below the 1,5% target set by government.
- The number of PhDs per million people has increased, however, it is far lower than our BRICS partners.
- 62 percent of companies in South Africa are vulnerable to disruption due to artificial intelligence (Al), the internet of things, block chain etc. suffering from a lack of human capital, innovation, and insufficient investment.
- South Africa has failed to nurture the emergence of new "unicorns" - high-growth startups valued at over a billion dollars.
- The growth of FinTechs and other mobile money operators has lagged regulatory friendly East Africa.
More Alarmingly:
- SETAs lack of responsiveness to changing economic priorities, resulting in skills shortages in emerging industries and sectors critical for economic growth.
- The education system continues to underperform with 40% of students failing to finish matric.
- Many children cannot proceed to higher education even if they qualify.
- Over 25% of children are stunted and more than 60% suffer from malnutrition, contributing to academic underperformance.
To develop our absorptive capacity, the MKP focusses on the following:
1. On Education policy, we will:
- Ensure that the education system is fee free and compulsory from kindergarten to post graduate education.
- Ensure that as part of our mass state-led infrastructure build all the physical infrastructure, facilities; and materials in educational facilities meets minimum norms and standards within 5 years.
- Increase operational budgets at least in line with inflation and learner enrolment.
- Ensure that all schools and early education centres will serve breakfast, lunch, and an after-school meal for all children.
- Address teenage issues like depression, pregnancy, and suicide: offering social work support, providing sports and recreation coaching, including health education, and ensuring comprehensive services in schools.
- Expand the higher education system by increasing capacity in existing universities, diversifying programme offerings, enhancing online education and building new universities/branches in underserved regions.
- Review the Master Skills List, the role of SETAs, etc. and have a proper Human Resource Development Strategy (what was then called "Manpower Planning"), linking Education, Labour, Industry and Home Affairs.
- Ensure that the education system fosters national consciousness, promotes the use of African languages as the medium of instruction and in the pursuit and generation of knowledge.
- Ensure that the education system encourages lifelong learning and continuous improvement of teaching and learning skills.
2. On Health policy, we will:
- Implement the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme as an instrument to redistribute resources in the healthcare system away from the expensive private health care system.
- Establish a state pharmaceutical company to break the power of private capitalist monopoly over the South African health system.
- Upgrade and expand health infrastructure, rapidly bringing health facilities up to minimum standards and norms.
- Expand the capacity and intake of medical schools and ensure that all universities have medical schools.
- Make it mandatory that every citizen undergo a health screening once a year.
- Support medical pluralism so that people have a choice to access alternative and traditional African healthcare and healing in public/private facilities.
- Protect the property rights of traditional African healthcare practitioners, so that they are not exploited by capitalist pharmaceutical companies.
- Institutionalize the research and development for standardization and regulation of traditional African medicines to improve its safety standards.
- Ensure that appropriate budgets are available for all healthcare facilities to operate for 24 hours, 7 days a week, and are adequately resourced with ambulances.
On Social Security, MKP will:
- Introduce a comprehensive social security system, constituted by clearly defined elements, to guarantee a well-defined minimum standard of living.
- The state will offer employment to everyone who is willing and able to work, at a decent wage above the minimum wage of R4500, with skills development and training opportunities.
- Introduce an adequate Basic Income Grant above the poverty line of R1 558 for those who are not able to work.
- Increase the Child Support Grant to the food poverty line of R760.
- Increase the old-age pension and the disability grant to the minimum wage of R4500 so that it guarantees a decent minimum standard of living for the aged and disabled.
- Eliminate homelessness by providing well-resourced shelters for the homeless and facilitate access to drug rehabilitation, skills development, training, and decent employment.
4. On innovation policy, MKP will:
- Foster innovation and enhance competitiveness by increasing R&D investment to 2% GDP.
- Foster strategic partnerships between universities, research institutions, and industry partners to co-develop and co-invest in research projects.
- Review and streamline processes for technology transfer and commercialisation to facilitate the flow of knowledge and innovation between academia and industry.
- Attract and retain top-tier talent, foster cutting-edge research by making a PhD a paid full-time programme with benefits in all public universities and catch-up to our BRICS partners:
- Encourage research-intensive foreign direct investment (FDI) by offering incentives to attract multinational corporations and foreign entities in knowledge intensive industries from supportive countries.
- Through targeted fiscal policies incentivize private sector spending on investment and research and development (R&D).
- Set up a special venture capital fund of funds targeted at high growth early-stage firms to unleash entrepreneurship in innovative, knowledge-intensive firms.
- Use macro-prudential and fiscal policy to support innovative, knowledge intensive firms.
- Relax regulations to foster financial inclusion by FinTechs and other mobile money operators.
F. PILLAR 6: RECLAIMING OUR SPACES
Recognising that:
- Access to shelter is a fundamental human need and the current government has failed to ensure that all citizens have access to it.
- South Africa also grapples with the issue of illegal property invasion, wherein individuals or groups unlawfully occupy land or buildings without proper authorization.
- The government's efforts to offer suitable housing solutions for the middle income/gap market segment in need have been inadequate.
- The current government lacks the commitment to reducing inequalities in terms of spatial distribution of settlements.
- The public transport system has not been redesigned to tackle spatial inequalities and enhance efficiency and mobility.
- The government has failed to oversee the transformation, upkeep, and financing of the entire public transport system.
- A state-led approach is important to prioritize a balanced mix of rail, taxis, buses, and air travel to optimize efficiency.
Consequently:
- Despite 3.4 million housing units provided since 1994, 1.4 million households still live in shacks, highlighting ongoing housing challenges.
- Spatial inequalities persist, with distant settlements exacerbating commuting difficulties and increasing the reservation wage.
- More than 7 million households lack access to public housing subsidies and mortgages.
- There are over 180 hijacked buildings in Johannesburg alone and 1000+ buildings lacking clear ownership.
- The Taxi Recapitalization Project (TRP) and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system have failed to address commuting challenges especially in townships, lead to longer waiting times.
- The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa's (PRASA) rail infrastructure is stripped for scrap daily, with coaches rotting unused due to parts shortages resulting in massive price increases for commuters.
To reclaim our spaces, the MKP focusses on the following:
1. On Human Settlements we will:
- Establish a state construction company dedicated to the delivery of housing, project management and quality assure construction and related services, where private capital is involved.
- Engage community-based organizations and traditional authorities to drive a massive programme to revamp and re-design human settlements so that they meet minimum norms and standards.
- Encourage the establishment of professionally run co-operative social housing structures, based on clear legal guidelines, that will manage the allocation and maintenance of state provided housing units.
- Offer mixed-income housing by integrating diverse housing options within a single development, catering to individuals and families across different income levels, inclusive of serviced stands for those willing and able to build their own houses.
- Offer mixed-use development- incorporate commercial, industrial, retail, and recreational spaces within the housing development to create vibrant, walkable communities.
- Use inclusionary zoning to implement policies and incentives to ensure the inclusion of affordable housing units within integrated developments.
- Establish a housing guarantee scheme modelled on US agencies Fanie Mae and Freddie Mac to encourage home construction and ownership amongst public servants and the employed/the gap market.
- Encourage the development of a fixed rate mortgage market and reduce interest rate volatility to improve predictability in the mortgage market.
- Expropriate property that has been abandoned to expand public housing provision.
2. On Public Transport, we will:
- Integrate public transport and accomplish subsidization of the taxi industry within the system of public transport.
- Establish a state-owned fund to finance the taxi industry on a developmental basis to free the industry of the clutches of the parasitic finance industry.
- Establish a state-owned taxi and bus manufacturing company to provide affordable, safe and green vehicles.
- Recapitalize the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system to more be efficient in not only the cities, but the townships.
- Increase access and provide an integrated transport system in the rural areas by revitalizing the rail system across the country and rebuilding train stations in small towns, rural areas and in cities.
- Recapitalize PRASA and re-activate contracts with reliable component manufacturers.
- Revamp the unused coaches and bring them back into line and engage with foreign partners to provide technical support to get locomotives moving.
- Maintain Rail as a national competency, aligning with cooperative governance principles and shared competency requirements.
- Review the scenario where cargo owners double as terminal operators to prevent anti competitive behaviour and protect emerging cargo owners in international trade.
- Revamping and expanding the rail system nationwide will boost rural economies, address spatial inequalities, and drive industrialization.
- Develop a High-Speed Rail (HSR) network for the country, with the medium-term priority being on JHB- Durban Rail Link, JHB-Musina Rail link, Durban - Eastern
- Cape Link and the Moloto Rail Corridor (Tshwane - Moloto - Siyabuswa - Sekhukhune).
- Develop technologies to monitor and protect the safety of the rail system.
G. PILLAR 7: RECLAIMING OUR SAFETY AND SECURITY
Recognising that:
- The ratio of one police officer for every 242 citizens in a population is alarmingly low and raises significant concerns regarding public safety and law enforcement capabilities.
- There are insufficient police vehicles, many police stations are not well-resourced and there is very little use of modern technology in the delivery of policing services.
- South Africa has been flagged as a centre of drug-trafficking, human trafficking, international money laundering.
- There are serious weaknesses of factionalisation and fragmentation in intelligence services.
- South African prisons are failing to fulfil their intended role of providing correctional services.
- These facilities are characterized by conditions that violate human dignity, compromise privacy, foster gangsterism, and hinder rehabilitation efforts.
- South Africa faces a significant challenge with the influx of illegal immigrants through its borders, which poses a threat to the country's security.
- Illegal immigration strains public resources, including healthcare, education, and social services.
- The Border Management Authority (BMA) is ineffective, facing a lack of resources and infrastructure, coordination and cooperation issues and corruption and mismanagement.
Further recognising that:
- The establishment of the South African National Defence Force was through a process that marginalized and denigrated the experience, training, and positions of operatives of military wings of the national liberation movement.
- Former liberation armies have received an unpleasant deal despite government policies stipulating benefits to be accrued by military veterans.
- Military veterans' demobilization packages given to veterans were not enough to cover their living expenses.
- There is a decline in investment in military equipment, recruitment and training of military personnel and very limited career progression in the army.
- The military service provides an opportunity to fight against youth unemployment, instil patriotism and promote civic values and national culture.
- The capacity of South Africa to conduct military research, technology research and equipment manufacturing has been destroyed.
Consequently:
- The imbalance between police officers and citizens contributes to feelings of insecurity and mistrust among the population.
- Mob justice accounts for over 1000 deaths every year.
- South Africa reported over 10 516 rapes, 1 514 cases of attempted murder and 14 401 assaults against female victims.
- The murder rate has been consistently high in South Africa, with an average 75 people killed every day.
- In 2023, the country fell 6 positions on the Global Corruption Index (from 77th to 83rd position), signalling an increase in corruption.
- Over 4 million illegal immigrants are estimated to be residing in South Africa, predominantly in townships and cities, contributing to various social and economic pressures.
- As of December 2023, South Africa ranked 12th in the world with the largest number of prisoners and ranked 1st in Africa.
- On average, there is over 40% overcrowding in South Africa's 342 correctional centre and 218 community centres.
To reclaim our safety and security, the MKP focusses on the following:
1. On Policing, we will:
- Adopt a multifaceted approach that involves increasing investments in law enforcement recruitment, training, and equipment.
- Implement policies to improve police-community relations and enhance collaboration with other stakeholders.
- Strengthen the fight against corruption by increasing the funding and capacity of the investigative directorate.
- Foster closer co-operation between police services and crime intelligence, thereby enhancing proactive crime prevention strategies.
- Strengthen crime intelligence and clean out operatives that have links with criminal syndicates.
- Resource forensic laboratories to speed up arrests and improve convictions.
- Ensure that each police station has a well-resourced specialised unit dedicated to the investigation of gender-based crimes.
- Accelerate the prosecution of all pending cases that have long been overdue since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- Hold a referendum on the death penalty.
3. On border control and immigration, we will:
- Strengthen border control by assigning border control to the military.
- Implement advanced technological solutions to enhance border surveillance.
- Revamp the Department of Home Affairs through eliminating corruption and updating immigration infrastructure.
- Enhance the effectiveness of the Border Management Authority (BMA) by capacitating and adequately resourcing the agency.
- Foster closer collaboration and coordination between the BMA and other relevant government agencies.
4. On the military, we will:
- Review the integration process that led to the establishment of the South African National Defence Force.
- Recognize the Military Veterans Act of 2011 and the Ministry of Military veterans will reside in the Presidency to ensure improved services to military veterans.
- Review the current military veterans' pensions regime to ensure that it covers their daily expenses and that of their dependents.
- Deliberately increase investment in new military equipment and increase the maintenance budget on the existing equipment.
- Recapitalize Denet and Armscor and drive state-to-state military co-operation with BRICS countries to leapfrog our technological and local manufacturing capacity.
- Encourage the commercialisation of some of the military technologies to resolve the challenges of meeting the basic needs of the people.
5. On correctional services, we will:
- Put effective programmes at correctional services aimed at reducing recidivism or re offending.
- Deploy technology at correctional centres to ensure they are not breeding grounds for crime.
- Ensure that offenders become part of crime fighting initiatives and programmes of paying back to society.
- Ensure that there is a dedicated fight to eliminate corruption among correctional officials and police.
H. PILLAR 8: RECLAIMING OUR SOVEREIGNTY AND POSITION IN AFRICA AND THE WORLD
Recognising that:
- We are an inseparable component of both Africa and the global community.
- Our own liberation journey was intertwined with the solidarity of African and Southern nations.
- The historical contributions of Cuba and Russia hold significance in our narrative.
- Africa remains reliant on the export of raw materials, lacking sufficient capacity for value addition and manufacturing.
- Disparities in the development of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the broader African continent led to involuntary migration spurred by economic hardships.
- Our engagement with the world is often characterized by inequitable trade and financing arrangements.
- The current government seems intent on destroying our tradeable sector and reducing our country to total external dependence on the West.
- As a founding member of BRICS, South Africa is part of a rising alliance offering the promise of more equitable trade, financial, diplomatic, and security partnerships, contrasting the previous hierarchical relationship with the West.
To reclaim our sovereignty and position in Africa and the world, the MKP will:
- Stand in solidarity with Russia, Cuba, and Palestine in their struggles against Western imperialist forces.
- We will review all international accords and agreements with a special focus on their impact on our sovereignty.
- Withdraw from the weaponized International Criminal Court (ICC).
- Work with the BRICS countries to explore alternative currencies and international settlement mechanisms.
- Foster closer trade, research, and development and investment relationships with the BRICS countries to foster technological upgrading.
- Review our inequitable financing relationships with the West and transition our country to be self-sufficient on capital equipment, food, and energy.
- Use state-to-state co-operation in Africa to drive regional and continent-wide investments to build and expand development corridors in the region.
- Strengthen the DBSA, the PIC and other strategic state funds, so that they can advance state-directed high impact infrastructure projects in the region.
- Work closely with the countries that share common minerals and develop regional value chains for value-addition and technologies around them, e.g., platinum, gold, diamonds, etc.
- Rebuild our oil refining capacity and design our refineries so that they fit the specification of oil from African countries.
- Expand our ports and upgrade their operations to provide quality services including for land-locked countries in the SADC region.
- Establish a commission within the SADC that focusses on harmonization of trade, tax, and other policies to make it easy to do cross-border investments and trade.
ENDS
