The FF Plus has for the sixth consecutive year undertaken an evaluation (drew up a report card) of the government's performance according to specific issues which is viewed by the average FF Plus supporter to be of importance. The issues which were evaluated are -

1. Combating Crime and Administration of Justice;
2. Education;
3. Economic Growth and Job Creation;
4. Language and cultural rights;
5. Foreign Affairs, and
6. Sport

Last year the FF Plus also evaluated the ANC according to these issues. A comparison can therefore easily be made.

In summary the following marks were allocated:

• combating crime and clean governance 1/10 (same as last year);
• education 2/10 as opposed to 3/10 last year;
• economic growth and job creation 3/10 as opposed to 4/10 last year;
• language and cultural rights 2/10 as opposed to 3/10 last year;
• foreign affairs 3/10 as opposed to 3/10 last year;
• sport 3/10 as opposed to 4/10 last year.

It therefore appears from the above evaluation that the ANC in the eyes of the average FF Plus voter had this year been given a mere average of 22% for its performance with regards to policy.

The FF Plus remains committed to South Africa which offers a place for all. The party will in 2009 - as has been the case in previous years - remain committed to the initiation of talks where it is possible and the mobilising of protest where it has to undertaken.

The ANC has been governing South Africa for nearly 15 years. In this time the party has apparently gone out of its way to further divide South Africans in all possible ways rather than uniting them.

It is our wish that the politics of the future will be dealing with a competition between those who could best unite South Africans rather than divide them.

The FF Plus is with great expectations looking forward to the elections in 2009.

The evaluation follows hereafter.

Introduction

The FF Plus has for the sixth consecutive year undertaken an evaluation (drew up a report card) of the government's performance according to specific issues which is viewed by the average FF Plus supporter to be of importance. The issues which were evaluated are -

1. Combating Crime and Administration of Justice;
2. Education;
3. Economic Growth and Job Creation;
4. Language and cultural rights;
5. Foreign Affairs, and
6. Sport

Last year the FF Plus also evaluated the ANC according to these issues. A comparison can therefore easily be made.

The allocation of marks was undertaken by more than 100 members of the FF Plus' Federal Council from across the country. The Federal Council of the party is constituted from delegates from all nine provinces, as well as the party's youth structures, MP's and MPL's.

The party has refrained from the evaluation of persons but rather evaluated the experiencing of government policy as a whole.

The report does not portend to be objective, but it is an accurate summary of the average FF Plus voter's experience of government policy.

The government's score card for 2008 is further explained below.

1. Combating Crime and Administration of Justice

Combating crime is the core function of a government. If a government fails in this regard, the state fails.

The controversial Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula was removed this year by President Kgalema Motlanthe and replaced by a new Minister, Nathi Mthethwa.

Although it appears as if Minister Mthethwa has a better grasp of the extent of crime given his public statements, his performance in the last resort will not be tested by his statements but rather by his actions and the results thereof.

The reason for the remark is as follows:

• The latest crime statistics indicate that murder (-3,7%), attempted murder (-7,9%) and ordinary robbery (-8,7%) have declined, but the figure for murder is still 38,6 per 100 000 of the population, as opposed to the world average for murder of 5 per 100 000.
• In South Africa the statistics for murder is still nearly eight times higher than the world average. Robberies at residences have increased by 13,5% (14 481).
• From the previous report year 2006/2007 to date, robberies at residences have increased by 38,9%. Car high-jackings have increased by 4,4% (14 201). These types of crimes threaten the public's lives and the public is therefore unsafe in their own homes and on their way to work. This explains the view of the public that crime is increasing and is getting out of control.
• Racism, especially black-against-white, by officers in the SAPS is a growing source of concern. Incidents where police officers act in a racist and prejudiced manner against white people and refuse to open cases are increasingly being experienced. The most well-known example is where a black police officer had said to a white victim of a car high-jacking that it is time for whites "to f.....f out of the country" (Beeld 7 November 2008).
• Increasing racism against white members of the SAPS lead to these people not being able to function properly and being over-loaded with work of other colleagues who are incompetent. Promotion possibilities for white SAPS members are also becoming scarcer.
• The suspended Commissioner of Police, Jackie Selebi, was, despite criminal charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice, rewarded by former president Mbeki by having his contract extended for another year. Taxpayers therefore still have to pay for the salary of a suspended chief of police.
• Former Minister Nqakula's refusal to answer several questions of the FF Plus in Parliament, such as for example, how many members of the police were themselves involved in crime, raises the eyebrows and destroys any trust which the public could still have had in the Police.
• The most controversial and unforgivable policy decision of the ANC with regards to crime was probably the scrapping of the Scorpions. The Scorpions were responsible for the investigation of the ANC president, Jacob Zuma, as well as the Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi. It was the most successful crime fighting unit and overshadowed the Police with regards to successful prosecutions.

The events as explained above, leaves a bitter taste with the public. It left the impression that the government is an accessory to the crime wave and this released an unprecedented anger with the public.

The FF Plus' allocation of marks to the ANC for combating crime and the administration of justice remains unchanged to that of 2006 and 2007, at 1 out of 10.

2. Education

The politicising of school education was taken to new heights by the ANC in 2008. The year 2008 will be remembered as the ANC's year of inferior, ideology driven education.

Earlier this year, former president Thabo Mbeki and the Minister of Education made headlines with their announcement that school children would have to take a compulsory oath or pledge in which they "acknowledge the injustices of the past" and "honour those who fought against it".

The FF Plus also revealed this year that grade 9 learners in the subject course Social Sciences had to complete a joint project for assessment with the theme "Apartheid - King Williamstown". The project mostly deals with Steve Biko who established SASO in 1969. SASO is depicted by the Department as "a Blacks-only Student Organisation". Learners had to, as part of their project, design a protest t-shirt "as a member of a black consciousness movement in the early 1970's".

The politicising and indoctrination which have become inherent to national school education, did however not contribute to an improved education standard. To the contrary, indications are that the education system is failing with regards to the basic requirements, i.e. to develop literacy and numeracy of learners. A study amongst 54 000 grade 3 learners from 2 400 primary schools last year, only achieved an average of 36% for literacy and 35% for numeracy.

A source of hope is the fact that the ANC is apparently realising that the concept of outcomes based education (OBE) is a failure and did not lead to the standard of education being raised.

2008 was no exception with regards to the continued pressure on Afrikaans schools. In the Northwest, the FF Plus undertook a poll of the schools which were indicated by the Department to be Afrikaans single medium schools. 70% of these schools however indicated that they had lost their single medium status in 2007 already.

The High School Ermelo-saga continued with the Mpumalanga Education Department's decision to summarily fire the Headmaster, Mr. Koos Kruger.

The FF Plus awards a lower failure mark of 2 out of 10 than the previous years' mark of 3 out of 10.

3. Economic growth and job creation

Last year the FF Plus warned that the way in which the economy was being managed at the time, could leave South Africa in a crisis within the next 10 years. Criticism was levelled at an approach by government to rather use surpluses for social grants instead of using it for essential infrastructure. The international financial crisis acted as an accelerator which threw South Africa even faster into a crisis than what was initially expected.

• To declare the international economic crisis as the only scapegoat for South Africa's poor financial state is however irresponsible.
• Since December 2007 the national power crisis hit the country as a direct result of the government's slack approach with regards to infrastructure development and consumers were punished with exorbitant power tariff increases. 2008 actually introduced the era of expensive, unreliable power. Power shortages lead to a moratorium on new property developments and Eskom even encouraged prospective investors at Coega and other places to place their investments on hold.
• The government's practice of monthly fixtures of the fuel price has now exploded in the face of government as a result of the stormy international market circumstances. This has forced the food prices to sky rocket and made production costs rise to such an extent that the food shortages experienced by the poorest section of the population has now worsened.
• Infrastructure has, especially on a municipal level, not been maintained and has reached a point of implosion.
• Health services are no longer capable of delivering the most basic of medical services.
• The Rand this year already lost a third of its value against the Dollar, Euro and Pound and the all-shares index on the JSE is 30% weaker than the same time last year.
• R40 billion has left South Africa the past couple of weeks as a result of the lack of confidence in the economy.
• South Africa is at present hovering on the brink of a negative growth rate.

South Africa needs bigger stability in this regard. Economic growth requires international confidence. Corruption and financial maladministration does not create international confidence. Corruption and maladministration is found in all the public sectors and should be eradicated. International investments in South Africa will create the possibility of sustainable economic growth and create new job opportunities, but that confidence will first have to be earned.

South Africa still has a relative growth forecast but it should be managed wisely through sensible regulation. In order to make use of this, it will not be sufficient to increase savings only.

Productivity will have to be increased dramatically. Affirmative action and black economic empowerment as luxuries which the economy can ill-afford in difficult circumstances, will have to be reduced drastically.

The party once again awards a lower failure mark for economic policy than it did last year, i.e. 3/10 as opposed to 4/10 last year.

4. Language and cultural rights

With the inauguration of the Constitution in 1996, certain institutions inherent to a democracy were established in order to help protect and develop certain issues which were regarded as bottlenecks. One of those institutions was the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights to Language, Culture and Religion (in short known as the Section 185 commission).

This year Parliament had, after more than a year's delays, accepted the recommendations of an ad hoc committee under the guidance of Dr. Kader Asmal that the commission should gradually be phased out and its cases, together with those of the Pan-South African Language Board, should be taken over by the Human Rights Commission.

The failure of the relevant institutions should be put at the door of the ANC. At present the political will is apparently lacking to intertwine South Africa's rich cultural diversity in a sensible manner with our democracy. The phasing out of these institutions is a further symptom of this.

Nothing came of the consultation process for the reaching of a consensus about geographical names which Cabinet had envisaged for the future. Controversial and sensitive street name changes were forced through in Durban and in Pretoria the FF Plus had to approach the court to slow down or prevent the name changes of historical streets.

The FF Plus awards the ANC once again a poorer failure mark of 2/10 as opposed to the 3/10 of last year.

5. Foreign Affairs

Issues such as Kosovo's independence, which were not recognised by the government, while they acknowledge the Palestinians' as well as international conferences about climate change, were on the agenda of the Department of Foreign Affairs. The elections in Zimbabwe and the crisis thereafter had largely overshadowed the Foreign Affairs agenda of the government this year. In the Zimbabwe crisis the pendulum swung from moments of hope and optimism to moments of hopelessness and despondency.

When the majority of voters in Zimbabwe elected an MDC government on the 29th March 2008 and supported Mr. Tsvangirai, there was great hope and optimism that a peaceful change of government in Zimbabwe would take place. "Maybe Mr. Mbeki's silent diplomacy had eventually delivered the sought after outcome", was the speculation of some commentators.

When it became clear after months that Mr. Mugabe would not accept the election results, the world and various African countries condemned Zimbabwe and Mr. Mugabe and his government were described as illegal.

The worst failure of South Africa's foreign policy with regards to Zimbabwe appears from the fact that countries such as Botswana and Zambia eventually had to take the lead (Aug 2008) to have the problem discussed on a SADC level. At present even Senegal is getting involved in the Zimbabwe problem because South Africa and SADC clearly can not solve the problem. Based on these failures the Department of Foreign Affairs should have the 3 out of 10 evaluation of last year reduced to 2 out of 10.

What makes a numeric evaluation difficult is that there had been differences between the Mbeki government to that of the Motlanthe government's handling of this issue in the same year.

The Motlanthe government did not hesitate to criticise the Zimbabwe crisis in much clearer terms as what had been the case earlier. The R300 million which was budgeted for by South Africa as aid to Zimbabwe, was also held back by the government in an effort to show their disapproval of the events taking place in Zimbabwe and place pressure on Mugabe.

That is why the government deserves recognition and it results in the evaluation this year being kept at 3/10.

6. Sport

The good that took place this year on the sport fields, happened in spite of the role of government.

Low points with regards to the government's handling of sport were the following:-

• Mr. Butana Komphela's controversial statements that the management of the South African Olympic Committee is full of whites and Indians who do not care about transformation.
• The humiliation of sport administrators in front of the parliamentary portfolio committee on Sport about issues which did not fall within the mandate of the committee.
• The fiasco surrounding the Department of Sport and Recreation's fruitless expenses on a half completed display at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
• The umpteenth qualified audit of the Department of Sport and recreation.
• The government's interference in the issues of Mind Sport South Africa with the appointment of a "national team" by the minister and the Gauteng MEC.
• The unsuitable and divisive controversy about the Springbok Emblem.

 The FF Plus therefore gives the government a poorer mark for sport, i.e. 3/10 as opposed to 4/10 last year.

Conclusion

In summary the following marks were allocated:

• combating crime and clean governance 1/10 (same as last year);
• education 2/10 as opposed to 3/10 last year;
• economic growth and job creation 3/10 as opposed to 4/10 last year;
• language and cultural rights 2/10 as opposed to 3/10 last year;
• foreign affairs 3/10 as opposed to 3/10 last year;
• sport 3/10 as opposed to 4/10 last year.

It therefore appears from the above evaluation that the ANC in the eyes of the average FF Plus voter had this year been given a mere average of 22% for its performance with regards to policy.

The FF Plus remains committed to South Africa which offers a place for all. The party will in 2009 - as has been the case in previous years - remain committed to the initiation of talks where it is possible and the mobilising of protest where it has to undertaken.

The ANC has been governing South Africa for nearly 15 years. In this time the party has apparently gone out of its way to further divide South Africans in all possible ways rather than uniting them.

It is our wish that the politics of the future will be dealing with a competition between those who could best unite South Africans rather than divide them.

The FF Plus is with great expectations looking forward to the elections in 2009.

DR. PIETER MULDER

Statement issued by Freedom Front Plus leader, Pieter Mulder, December 5 2008

Click here to sign up to receive the Politicsweb daily headlines in your email inbox in the morning