Zuma's ANC manifesto plans will not reduce unemployment

Many South Africans share an appreciation for the ANC's role in the struggle against apartheid, the role of Nelson Mandela in reconciling our nation and the progress made towards realizing a better life for all with increased access to basic services, water, electricity and housing. 

But under the leadership of President Jacob Zuma unemployment continues to grow, and delivery progress has stalled as state resources are increasingly being channelled towards the enrichment of a connected few. 

South Africans are ready for change and they are looking for a political party that will work with them to bring this change to South Africa.

The ANC's manifesto shows that there will be no significant changes in how the country is run if the party is voted into power for another five years. The ANC is repeating promises. It has shown itself to be either incapable or unwilling to deliver during the 20 years that South Africans have already given them to prove themselves in government.  

There are four areas in which the ANC's promises ring particularly hollow: jobs, corruption, rural transformation and its commitment to leading with integrity. 

Empty jobs promises

The ANC says it will build an inclusive economy that creates jobs. The party's economic policy has, however, failed to establish an environment in which businesses can grow and jobs can be created. Unemployment has become entrenched at 25% (narrow definition), with more than 2.2 million workers having given up looking for a job altogether. At the current anaemic economic growth rates, this picture will not change. 

Research on South Africa's growth potential shows that targeted interventions to ease skills constraints, increase savings and investment, increase competition and reduce costs in the economy can boost GDP growth to 8% by 2025. In this growth scenario, the South African economy could add 5.8 million jobs and reduce unemployment to 11% . 

To achieve this, we will need commitments from government beyond boosting jobs numbers through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). Feedback on the EPWP from the Department of Public Works shows that it has only reached around 68% of the targeted 4.5 million EPWP opportunities (2 million full-time equivalents) promised in 2009. The Western Cape is one of only three provinces that have over-performed on their EPWP targets. The ANC cannot demonstrate how it will deliver on the new inflated promise of 6 million EPWP jobs by 2019. 

The only relatively new proposal in the ANC's manifesto that pertains to jobs, is its commitment to investigate the introduction of a national minimum wage. Further labour market rigidity will not result in more jobs being created and is likely to provide further protection for the employed at the expense of the unemployed. The ANC seems to have lost faith in the capacity of its alliance partners to use our labour democracy to negotiate a fair deal for workers. 

Trying to regain credibility in the fight against corruption

The promise to fight corruption was a core pillar of the ANC's 2009 Manifesto and also features prominently in the 2014 document. 

The party is promising to stop public servants from doing business with the state. The legislation it drafted (and eventually withdrew) last year to achieve this was relatively weak and did not include the families of public servants. 

Legislation adopted by the DA-run Western Cape government in 2010 prohibits government employees and their families from holding more than a 5% stake in any entity that does business with the provincial government and our public representatives have tried, to no avail, to get similar legislation passed in other provinces. 

Under ANC-rule, South Africa annually loses around R25 to R28 billion to corruption and maladministration. The ANC now promises to ensure that those found guilty by "a court of law [to] step down from any leadership positions in the ANC, government and society". The party has certainly not moved with great haste to remove corrupt officials from the system during its time in government, often opting for long, fully-paid suspensions and golden handshakes. 

If the behaviour of the ANC leader is anything to go by, it is also likely that an ANC government will continue to expend significant resources in preventing corruption cases from reaching the courts and delaying court action once such processes have been initiated. 

Failure to transform rural areas

The ANC's manifesto prioritises transformation in rural areas. Effective land reform represents an opportunity to invigorate rural economies by giving rural dwellers access to productive assets. 

Land reform has, however, come to represent one of the most saddening lost opportunities of ANC rule. Research shows that the money spent on land reform to date should have been enough to buy around 58% of productive agricultural land in South Africa. Government programmes have secured less than 7% of agricultural land for black South Africans. The government's focus on the quantity of land transferred and neglect of support for new land owners has meant that around 90% of land reform projects have failed.

The ANC also continues to hamper the economic freedom of the 21 million South Africans living and farming in communal land areas by failing to propose decisive action to secure their ownership rights. It has become more important to the ruling party to secure the support of tribal chiefs than to radically transform rural economies. 

The lost integrity of the ANC

The pledge in the ANC manifesto that would likely evoke the most scepticism from analysts and the voting public must be the party's commitment to "remain true to [its] values of courage, service, self-sacrifice, human solidarity, integrity, humility, honesty, hard-work, self-discipline and mutual respect". 

These may have been the values of the ANC as a liberation movement and the ANC of Mandela and Mbeki. But Jacob Zuma's ANC has lost its way. Under Zuma's leadership the party has become a vehicle for patronage for the connected few. It is trying ever more desperately to defend the excessive expenditure on luxuries for its leaders and ministers and seems to have lost sight of the plight of the poor, the unemployed and the disempowered in South Africa. 

The DA's policy platform for the election has been finalised and is now available to the public on our website. Our party manifesto will be launched during our campaign in March. Our economic policy  targets growth through direct incentives for jobs, support for small business, reducing red tape, redress measures that promote participation, reducing the cost base of the economy, boosting trade and investing in knowledge and ideas. 

Our commitment to voters centres around the promise to bring around positive change. Voters will have to choose between another five years of empty ANC promises and the DA's proven commitment to delivering clean government, growth and jobs. 

Statement issued by Dr Wilmot James MP, Federal Chairperson of the Democratic Alliance, January 12 2014

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