Economic freedom fighters parliamentary caucus statement
Thursday, 31 July 2014
The Economic Freedom Fighters partook in the Parliamentary budget vote debates over the past two weeks, and objected to the adoption of all departmental and entities' budgets. The EFF comprehensively and cogently objected to each and every budget vote because we believe that overall, the ANC is in pursuit of a wrong ideological, political and economic programme. The primary basis of the EFF's rejection of the budget is the fact that it is based on the National Development Plan, which is a political programme of the ANC, Democratic Alliance and its seems, all other smaller parties represented in the 5th Democratic Parliament.
The EFF does not agree with the NDP because it is a reactionary programme embraced by all right-wing political parties in South Africa.
The EFF has been saying that since 1994, there was never real opposition in South Africa's Parliament because all the political parties embrace same ideological and political lenses and tools of analysis. The EFF has illustrated over the budget vote that our opposition to the ruling party and all existing political parties is not just superficial opposition, but deeper ideological and clearly defined political opposition to the status quo.
All the right wing and capitalist policies that have been implemented in South Africa since 1994 are the main cause of high levels of unemployment, poverty and inequalities. The NDP which the EFF rejects, is not different from the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR), and Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGISA), and these have dismally failed to reduce poverty and create jobs. This government says that the NDP is being implemented, yet unemployment, as recently announced by Stats SA, is increasing, our people are getting poorer and inequalities are not being resolved. The EFF is saying to South Africa that the NDP is not a solution. It is only the radical programme of the EFF which will save South Africa from these crises.
The ruling party and all existing political parties refuse to accept the simple logical fact that the problems and crises confronting South Africa today are a result of the implementation of the same capitalist and right-wing political programme that have been tried and failed over the past 20 years. The EFF has begun the necessary task of educating members of parliament and the whole of society that an alternate world and society is possible. The EFF has begun the programme of educating society and the whole f society that a better world is possible, not what has been happening for the past 20 years.
For the first time in Parliament, the EFF prominently raised the occurrences of transfer pricing, base erosion and profit shifting.
Virtually all members of the Parliament of all the right wing political parties do not know what these occurrences are or have deliberately turning a blind eye on these because these are corporate crimes robbing South Africa of billions of Rands. During their presentation to the Finance Standing Committee, the Financial Intelligence Centre confirmed that there are occurrences of transfer pricing in South Africa and coupled with other forms of illicit corporate activities, these cost the South African economy more than R600 billion over the last 10 years.
Despite this reality, there is still no legislation in South Africa which forbids transfer pricing, base erosion and profit shifting by corporate criminals who rob South Africa of massive potential wealth.
The EFF will intensify the campaign against transfer pricing, base erosion and profit shifting by multinational corporations which are robbing all the natural resource producing countries in the African continent. These and many other strategic issues will be of priority during this term of Parliament. The EFF will also intensify for State ownership of the minerals extractive industries so as to provide the necessary resources and industrial inputs to a radical industrialisation expansion programme. The ruling party seems to not understand the key components to industrial policy, and this is reflected on the fact that key industrial and economic policy instruments and institutions are not properly aligned to pursue industrial expansion.
The EFF despises the weak tactic of the ruling party of throwing labels to the Economic Freedom Fighters during debate, which are the primary causes of Parliamentary degeneration. The ruling party seem determined to label the EFF as a Nazi and fascist movement, ignoring the reality that the EFF is the only organisation that truly represent the interests of the working class and the poor. The labels thrown at the EFF by the ruling party are a reflection of poor political and ideological leadership, which resorts to labels, insults and character assassinations because they have no valid political objections to what the EFF has put on the table.
The EFF has since called on the people of South Africa to participate in parliamentary programmes through mailing questions and sending suggestions and comments on the work that we do in Parliament. Thus far, the contributions received from ordinary people on the ground have been useful and we call on the people to continue using the channels we have provided to participate in Parliamentary programmes and debates. We do so because we are a movement which truly represent the people on the ground, and are putting in place the principle of the people governing.
The people should govern and hold all spheres of government accountable.
As things stand, there are no proper accountability mechanisms in place and this is reflected on the failure of almost all Municipalities under the ANC and DA governments to properly account for finances under their control. The recent announcement of the Auditor General on the performance of Municipalities reflect that under both the ANC and DA Governments, South African Municipalities are far from being clean. It is only the EFF which will bring accountability to local government and this will be reflected after the 2016 Local Government elections when the EFF runs Municipalities.
Overall, our emphasis is that South Africa is being misled by the ruling party through a neo-liberal programme called the National Development Plan. As we said during our debate during the Presidency budget vote:
a. The National Development Plan does not have protected industrial development at the centre of the development that South Africa should undergo until 2030.
b. The NDP's identified job drivers in the NDP are services, domestic work, and informal sector. This is not a sustainable plan, because to improve the living conditions of millions of people, you need formal jobs in the industrial sectors because services are not labour-intensive.
c. The NDP aims to diminish workers' rights and their protection because it proposes lots of labour cheapening mechanisms as a means of attracting investments. This approach is a problem and will never happen because in South Africa, workers should be priority and even if attempts to weaken their rights will be resisted by workers on the ground.
d. The NDP does not place increase of agricultural productivity at the centre of development, only targeting an additional 1 million jobs by 2030... This means only 70 000 jobs per year in agriculture until 2013.
Agriculture and the entire food economy is the most reliable means through which South Africa can guarantee food security and create sustainable jobs for millions of people, not 70 000 per year.
e. In 2030, South Africa's population will be more than 65 million people and that in itself has potential to create millions of jobs if SA produces enough food to feed itself and still export to the continent.
The NDP does not have a plan on land reform, agricultural productivity and the food economy.
f. The NDP does not say anything about the need to locally beneficiate minerals resources, and big mining capital is happy with that because they are not interested in local beneficiation.
It is only the EFF which will provide long lasting solutions to the people of South Africa, and the deteriorating conditions of the people will only be resolved through implementation of the 7 cardinal pillars contained in the EFF Founding Manifesto. In the meantime, the EFF will continue with programmes and activities to oversee government and provide sustainable solutions to the crises of poverty, unemployment and inequalities.
Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, July 31 2014
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