FF Plus' annual evaluation of ANC's successes and failures

Introduction

Herewith the FF Plus' annual end of year evaluation (report card) of the ANC's achievements and failures in 2012.

Methodology

As methodology, members of the FF Plus from across the country are asked to indicate issues which had been of importance to them during the course of the year. Thereafter they have to provide an opinion and award a point for it.

In this period, December 2011 - December 2012, ministers had changed from portfolios and others were fired. This makes an evaluation of individual ministers difficult. That is why the experiencing of government policy as a whole was evaluated and not individuals.

Advantages

The advantage of such a poll is that it indicates which political issues are currently important to voters and FF Plus supporters and how they feel about these issues. The report does not purport to be objective, but is an accurate summary of the average FF Plus voter's experience of government policy. Where the poll is done at the end of the year, experience has shown that current news events such as Marikana and the motion of no confidence in Parliament may be more prominent than events which had taken place at the beginning of the year. Naturally, a large number of issues were mentioned by the voters. Only the ten issues which had garnered the most comments are offered in sequence here.

The issues which had been evaluated and which are of importance to FF Plus supporters are as follows:

1. General Corruption

2. Crime

3. Finance and Economy

4. Planning Commission

5. Labour and Job-creation

6. Education

7. Service Delivery and Local Government

8. Parliament

9. Language and Cultural Rights

10. State Business - Minority Rights

The government's ‘exam results' and marks allocated for 2012 are set out in detail below.

1. General Corruption

Corruption was consistently identified as a serious problem.

Positive

The fearless statements against corruption and the objective investigations of adv. Thuli Madonsela as public protector were experienced positively and are strongly supported. The question was however asked whether she, with the same vigour that she investigates ANC councils, also investigates the alleged corruption and mismanagement of the DA council in the Midvaal municipality.

Negative

No tenders, quotas and contracts in the public sector are above suspicion any longer. In the Free State for example, women who apply for housing and cannot afford bribes, now have to pay with sexual favours. The culture of corruption in the public sector deepens every day. The fact that bribery and fraud in the Department of Police is the highest of all departments, serves as proof of where SA is at present.

The Special Investigative Unit is currently investigating more than 1 000 cases of fraud and corruption in the public sector. They cannot undertake any investigation which the President had not approved through a special proclamation. Nearly 600 of the 1 000 cases the Special Investigative Unit is currently investigating relates to tender fraud and contracts valuing more than R9 billion. In 360 cases, conflict of interests, is an element. This unit confirms that it is merely the tip of the ice-berg. Should corruption be nipped in the bud, extra taxes, such as toll fees, would not be necessary.

In many African and other countries bribery and corruption are accepted as part of the country's management culture. In South Africa it is important that the struggle against corruption, with continuous investigations by adv. Madonslea, with media revelations and questions of the FF Plus and other opposition parties in parliament, is continued in order to prevent us from also ending up like other countries.

The point awarded by the FF Plus to the ANC for combating corruption is 4/10 for 2012.

2. Crime

Combating crime is a constitutional duty of which the political responsibility is that of the minister and the government (section 205(3) & 206). If a government fails in this regard, the state fails and it then becomes a predominantly criminal country.

Positive

2.1 Murder: The only positive aspect was the general decline in most violent crimes according to the statistics of the Police. The latest crime statistics indicate that murder dropped by 3,1%. South Africa's murder figure is now 30,9 per 100 000 of the population. It is still nearly five times more than the world average (7 per 100 000). The reality is that 15 609 murders had occurred in the reporting period and in the past 10 years 182 935 people have been murdered in South Africa.

2.2 Robbery: Robberies at residences have dropped by 1,9% (16 766). If the past five years are taken into account, it however still increased by 31,4%.

2.3 Police Commissioner: The firing of Bheki Cele as commissioner was a positive step but the public's trust in the police is still very low.

Negative

2.4 Crime intelligence: The handling of the head of crime intelligence, Gen. Mdluli, by the Minister was an embarrassment for the Police. The functionality of crime intelligence was seriously damaged and the section could not do their work properly. Allegations of corruption in the section are further damaging their image.

2.5 Crowd control: The acknowledgement by the Police that training in crowd control had basically been stopped from 1995, lets questions arise about the actions of Police at mass marches and the Marikana events.

2.6 Firearm licenses: The Police's handling and controlling of their firearms and that of the public's, are extremely poor. The Minister had already in 2010 announced that members would be dismissed if they lose their firearms. In the past financial year 1165 firearms of the Police were stolen or lost but only a few were dismissed. It is clear that applications for firearm licenses by the public were declined without proper consideration, merely to wipe out backlogs. Through this, the rights of firearm owners are infringed upon.

2.7 Racism: Increasing racism against white and brown members in the SAPS is still causing them to not be able to function properly and they are over-burdened with work of other colleagues who are incompetent. Promotion possibilities for, especially white, SAPS members are still very small and discriminatory.

2.8 Farm Murders: This is continuing and the Minister's refusal to reveal figures of farm murders creates suspicion and it is still unacceptable, as the FF Plus views it as a priority crime which threatens food security in South Africa.

From the above it is clear that the negative aspects still dominate this year.

The FF Plus' awarding of points to the ANC for combating crime is 4/10.

3. Finance and Economy

Positive

3.1 Discipline: The impression is that the Minister of Finance, Mr. Pravin Gordhan, on a macro-economic level, is doing his best to manage South Africa's public finances healthily and to enforce economic discipline.

3.2 Recession: Due to banking and other preventative legislation, South Africa survived the international recession easier than other countries.

Negative

3.3 Foreign investments: The Walmart-Massmart court case, the Marikana slaughter, nationalisation threats and the general labour unrest confuse foreign investors and send negative signals to the international community about South Africa's economy. According to a report of the United Nations, Foreign Investments in South Africa have declined by 46% while it rose by 5% in the rest of Africa. Where South Africa received the majority of foreign investments in Africa in the past, it is at present Angola. Angola received $10 billion as opposed to South Africa's $1,6 billion.

3.4 Tax: A stumbling block for economic growth is the increasing number and growing forms of taxation. Various academics have indicated that South Africans are already spending as much as 60% of their income on taxes when all the direct and indirect taxes are taken into account. The burden is still increasing with the adding of stealth taxes, such as toll tariffs. It is significant that various commentators view the e-toll protest as the first large-scale tax revolt in South Africa. It is an indication of the increasing impatience of tax payers with the exorbitant tax burden.

 In addition, an unhealthy portion of taxes is being spent to support 16 million people on welfare grants. The situation is unsustainable given the fact that about 5 million people out of 50 million are paying taxes. That is why the Ministers of Finance and Labour should work quickly to deregulate the labour market in order to give entrepreneurs free reigns. Only then will the economy grow and jobs be created.

3.5 Transnet Pension Fund: The refusal of Transnet and the treasury to fully supplement the Transnet Pension Fund, as per the instruction of Parliament, is scandalous, especially in the light of the higher bonuses which the Transnet Top Management awarded themselves. The desperate situation of Transnet pensioners, which built up a public enterprise such as Transnet, is an indication of the maladministration and lack of moral prioritising by government. The FF Plus' preparation for the class action against Transnet has also brought further information to light which indicates that the government and Transnet had not fulfilled their legal obligations worth several million rand toward pensioners. The class action will be launched shortly.

Against this background, the FF Plus' awarding of points to the ANC co finance and economic management is 5/10 for 2012.

4. Planning commission

The National Planning Commission's development plan for South Africa (vision for 2030) is one of the most comprehensive strategic plans which had been produced by government in the last couple of years.

Positive

The Planning Commission's plan was not, as its predecessors, produced by a bunch of public officials with preconceived political ideologies. It is the result of months of intensive research by experts in the country as to what is needed to make South Africa a winning country. All opposition parties supported the plan in general.

The document addresses broad core problems in South Africa and it provides a comprehensive analysis of the country's challenges. For example:

* That the ANC's policy of cadre deployment has led to a weakened state with a public service which cannot effectively enforce government policy. This has to be replaced with a merit-based public service;

* That corruption fighters, such as the special investigative unit and the public protector, are under-financed and under-staffed and should be protected against political interference through legislation;

* That labour legislation is undermining job-creation, that uncertainty about mining rights is putting investors off and that South Africa's public service and infrastructure need urgent attention.

Negative

* The planning commission stands outside of government in an advisory capacity.

* Some elements within the ANC, and specifically within the governing alliance with Cosatu and the SACP, differ with the proposals and are seriously opposing it. At the July 2012 policy conference of the ANC, the proposals of the planning commission were only mentioned in passing to delegates.

The forthcoming Mangaung ANC conference will determine whether any of the proposals in the plan will be made ANC policy.

The FF Plus' awarding of points to the ANC for the planning commission is 7/10.

5. Labour

The huge number of strikes and labour problems during 2012 and the concern FF Plus supporters have about this, forces the party to specifically respond to this issue.

It appears as if government on the one hand has lost control of the labour situation, but on the other hand keeps on stoking these problems themselves. The Marikana slaughter, country-wide violent strikes by truck drives, public servants and farm workers with specific reference to the Western Cape, point to the following problems in the labour market:

Unemployment remains a serious problem with decisive consequences for all. Government is failing in its attempts to address it.

Some of the main reasons for the failure are the rigid labour market, misappropriation, stealth taxes and corruption in the public sector.

It is clear that the South African economy is now starting to pay a heavy price for rigid minimum wages, over-protection of workers against the unemployed and other discriminating policy directions, such as affirmative action and black economic empowerment which keep minorities, especially whites and brown people, out of the economy.

The IMF has previously indicated that an inflexible labour market is South Africa's greatest stumbling block to growth. Against this background it is worrying to note that the Minister of Labour will further restrict the labour market by increasing affirmative action measures rather than phasing it out.

In addition, the Minister of Trade and Industry's parallel attempts to more aggressively police black economic empowerment (BEE) and his attempts to exclude white people and disabled people from the designated groups are a source for concern as it makes the economy closed for those people who could have made a contribution to growth. In addition, it is racist in nature and discourages social cohesion. Research indicates that black investors are on an equal footing with white investors on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Against this backdrop it is senseless to continue to distort the economy on the basis of race.

Against this background the FF Plus' awarding of a mark for the ANC for labour is 3/10 for 2012.

6. Education

Due to the number of scandals and court cases, it is justified to also specifically give the views of FF Plus supporters on this.

It is quite clear that education under the ANC rule has failed. Specifically, basic education has in many ways collapsed, as seen in the following:

* The poor standard of basic education in general with South Africa seen as the country with the poorest standards in mathematics and science:

* The systemic undermining of schools systems and the harming of learners through the non-delivery of school books, especially in the Limpopo province;

* The manipulation of pass rates by way of lower subject standards which brings about more learners passing;

* The undermining of mother tongue instruction in that the department of basic education wants to force children speaking other languages into especially Afrikaans schools, which eventually forces schools to become double-medium and later English-only schools;

* The undermining of mother tongue education by systematically neglecting schools in old black townships which force those parents to send their children to better schools, especially Afrikaans schools, which are consequently then forced to change their language policy;

* The government's protection of teachers unions which allows their members to strike and not to pitch for work with the resultant weakening of the education system;

Basic education in South Africa is in a serious crisis and the country can plan for a generation of school leavers who will not be able to compete in a modern international economy with the consequent economic crisis which will follow on this.

Against this background, the FF Plus' awarding of points to the ANC for education is 3/10 for 2012.

7. Service Delivery on Local Government Level

Service delivery on local government level, most probably, has the largest impact on the daily lives of nearly every South African.

7.1 Fiscal management

Irresponsible spending and poor fiscal control in municipalities are at the order of the day and the Auditor General (AG) warned in August 2012 that municipalities' unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasted expenses during the past year had already amounted to R 14,6 billion. Only 13 of the country's 283 municipalities received a clean audit this year.

7.2 Service Delivery

The current state in which service delivery finds itself in local authorities is the result of years of poor management and misappropriation by poorly trained managers in municipalities and is largely due to:

* Cadres being deployed to take decisions;

* Untrained individuals which are deployed to do the work;

* Poor leadership;

* Inability to govern;

* Poor strategic planning especially with integrated development plans;

* Poor public participation; and

* Failure to implement necessary projects.

The number of riots (more than 400) due to poor service delivery has already taken on catastrophic proportions across the country and endangers civil stability.

7.3 Debt burden

Recent reports in the media indicated that consumers are suffering under the burden of rising living costs. Eskom and local authorities have this year respectively made R13 billion and R17 billion in profits from the distribution and sale of electricity. According to the economist, Mike Schüssler, unrestricted surcharges are the biggest cause of South African's financial problems and it is predicted that municipal bad debt (debtors) will according to expectations rise by 52% by the middle of 2013. Approximately 40% of all unpaid debt in the country is older than three months and is owed to local authorities and Eskom.

The FF Plus is of the opinion that the local government system should urgently be transformed by appointing expert officials in key positions and by giving a larger measure of independence and decision-making capabilities to local communities.

There can be no doubt that the ANC government is failing completely with municipal service delivery.

The FF Plus awards a point of 2 out of 10 to the ANC on the basis of the above evaluation.

8. Parliament

For the first time FF Plus supporters pointed out Parliament as an institution which should be evaluated. Their concern is that Parliament's role, as watchdog and the mouthpiece of voters, is in a calculating way being downscaled.

Positive

* The only positive aspect was the decision to give more time to opposition parties during debates. In short debates, where opposition parties were only given one minute to speak, it was increased to three minutes. Opposition parties have for years been asking for an increase of time in discussions.

Negative

* The ANC's refusal to allow a motion of no-confidence in parliament with the result that the case had to end in court.

* Important issues and topical events in South Africa, about which Parliament should comment, and which had been proposed by the opposition for discussion, are being ignored. Only three such current event debates, specifically on the insistence of the opposition, took place during the past year. Parliament is rather keeping itself busy with unimportant debates about the international calendar of events.

* Parliamentary portfolio committees are increasingly being used to over-hastily force through ANC policy views regardless of public inputs or opposition views.

The FF Plus awards a point of 4 out of 10 to the ANC on the basis of the above evaluation

9. Language and Cultural Rights

9.1 National Language Act

Positive

More than 16 years after it had become a Constitutional requirement that the government should accept a national language act, a bill on this issue was eventually submitted to parliament.

Following serious opposition, negotiations behind the scenes and far-reaching amendments by the FF Plus, the bill was passed. The final test will now be, to which extent the ANC is serious about the enforcement of the act?

Negative

The Language Act is not an ANC achievement but the result of a court order by Judge Ben du Plessis in the High Court in Pretoria in May 2010 that government has to obey the stipulations in section 6(4) of the Constitution with regard to the establishment of a language act.

9.2 Geographic Names

Every year there are new court cases, protests and fights about name changing. Because there is no cut-off date for this type of changes, name changes have been taking place for the past 18 years in this unsatisfactory manner. This affects voters directly.

The names of Louis Trichardt and Nelspruit were changed to Makhado and Mbombela while the process to change Pretoria's name was again started. In Pretoria and Cape Town the ANC and DA proposed that a large number of well-known historical street names should be changed.

On 14 November 2012, the FF Plus Leader, Dr. Pieter Mulder, had a serious one-on-one discussion with Mr. Zuma about the implications of changing the name of Pretoria as the capital. The process was temporarily stopped.

In Cape Town, Mr. Andre Fourie as FF Plus councillor prevented a number of street name changes through negotiations and proposing alternative names.

The FF Plus has no objections if buildings, places, streets, etc. are named after people who had been passed over in the past and did not receive any recognition.

What the party does oppose is the obsession on the side of both the ANC and DA to try to re-write the history of South Africa according to their current subjective views. The Anglo-Boer War, colonialism, the slave period, apartheid, etc. are all made scape-goats. The question is - who determines the degree of sin of each period and its personalities?

Everything which was done in the past was not necessarily without a mistake but definitely also not without any positive results.

The view of the FF Plus is: Add without taking away!

Emergency services who look for addresses are continuously complaining that numerous new streets and residential areas at present do not have any names. Name buildings, places and streets, also after those who did not receive any recognition, but do not replace existing names merely for short term party political gains. We should also strive here for a win-win situation if we are honest and earnest that South Africa belongs to all who live in it.

For Language and Cultural Rights the FF Plus awards the ANC government a point of 4/10.

10. State and Constitutional Issues - Minority Rights

How democratic a government is, is today internationally determined by looking at how such a government acts towards the minorities in the country.

During the Conference on Social Cohesion in July this year, the FF Plus proposed a Ministry for Minorities. It is an international trend. Countries such as India, Israel and Pakistan, for example, have already introduced such ministries.

The ANC seriously objected to it and proposed that South Africa's minorities merely integrate with the majority. The ANC will have to take note of the mind-shift internationally, with the recognition of minority rights following the years of one-sided emphasis on individual rights.

This mind-shift was clear when the FF Plus participated in three debates recently in Genève, Switzerland, where concepts such as self-determination, diversity, identity, ethnicity, group, community and minority rights were discussed in depths and were not dismissed as being politically incorrect, as is being done in South Africa.

For Constitutional Issues - Minority Rights the FF Plus awards the ANC government a point of 3/10.

Conclusion

In conclusion the following points were awarded:

1. General Corruption 4

2. Crime 4

3. Finance and Economy 5

4. Planning Commission 7

5. Labour and Job-creation 3

6. Education 3

7. Service Delivery and Local Government 2

8. Parliament 4

9. Language and Cultural Rights 4

10. State Business - Minority Rights 3

It therefore appears from the above evaluation that the ANC, from the view of the average FF Plus member, had earned an average of 39% for its performance with regard to policy.

The FF Plus remains committed to a South Africa which offers room to everyone. The party will in 2013 - as in the years before - remain committed to the constructive initiation of talks where it can and the mobilising of opposition and resistance where it has to.

Statement issued by Dr. Pieter Mulder, FF Plus Leader, December 13 2012

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