Jobs, empowerment and clean governance create trust

Note to editors: The following is an extract from a speech delivered by DA Premier Candidate for Gauteng, Mmusi Maimane, today at the 2013 Black Management Forum Annual Conference debate on whether good governance can increase trust amongst government, civil society, labour and business.

It is a privilege to address you this afternoon, and to take part in this debate, at your annual conference. There is no doubt that this forum and its members will have an impact on the shape of this country's future.

It is crucial that we leave a legacy of excellent management talent and a heritage of accomplished black leaders.

A key role of government is to support a growing economy that creates jobs. We must focus on growth and jobs with a laser-like intensity because it is our best chance of redressing the legacy of apartheid that left so many of our people in poverty.

We also need to ensure that our economy is inclusive - that all benefit from the proceeds of growth. People who have been economically excluded in the past, must be included in the present.

That is why we support broad-based Black Economic Empowerment. People who say that they would abolish BEE are irresponsible; they are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We need BEE that works.

It is true that we need to stop the same people benefiting from BEE over and over again. BEE for the few perpetuates the same insider-outsider divide that we are trying to move away from.

So I'm going to be straight with you today. This is how the DA would improve the scorecard to create jobs and broaden empowerment:

Currently we don't reward business initiatives that drive Socio-economic development (this gets just 5 out of 100 points on the scorecard). The DA would increase recognition for business initiatives that enhance socio-economic development

Second, we also want to award points for job creation prospects of business initiatives

Third, we want the score assigned to ‘new entrants' be dependant on an individual having less than R10-mil in equity from previous BEE deals, and not the inflated R50-mil that currently stands

Importantly we also want greater recognition for economic benefits held by black South Africans through employee share-ownership schemes (no income tax on gains). Those are the main ideas behind reforming BEE. I believe that through these changes we can broaden the empowerment of black South Africans and drive job creation and growth at the same time.

The truth that we all need to confront is that we are never going to grow the economy and create jobs unless we get rid of corruption in government.

We see positive remarks this week from Minister Gordhan. We congratulate him on scrapping government credit cards, and in doing so; following the example set by the Western Cape since 2009. It's only a shame that it took him 4 years to acknowledge. So much more wasteful spending could have been stopped earlier.

Where the DA governs we managed in just one year to achieve unqualified audits in every single government department.

That is why the Presidency's own monitoring tool rates the Western Cape with a score of 70% for governance, and 81% for financial management. Compare this to Gauteng's 25% for governance, and 39% for financial management.

But I would not be satisfied simply replicating those successes in Gauteng. We need to bring skilled black professionals into government and that's why I'm proposing: 

A Formal Graduate Recruitment programme to bring skilled young people into the public sector

A Central agency tasked with scarce skills recruitment for government

Outsourcing non-core functions of government to the private sector so that we can grow business

Enforcing the excellent law that is the Public Finance Management Act

An efficient civil service is central to turning this province around and making Gauteng great.

We have excellent black managers in government. But they are being undermined by the political appointments being made around them. 

Forums like the BMF are crucial to push for a professional public service that has the needs of the people at heart.

Today we see elected leaders in government who have turned to self-enrichment.

We see leaders, at the highest levels of our government, who have shifted from governing for the people, to governing for themselves.

And the people of South Africa bear a paralysing burden because of this.

With over R200-million of public money, your money and my money, being put to the President's private residence at Nkandla: This is the example that is set for the people of this country.

Here's another example. This year the Gauteng government misused 10% of its budget. Almost R7-billion in unauthorised, irregular and wasteful expenditure. The rot which set in at the top has filtered down indeed.

How many businesses suffered, how many people suffered because so much money that should have gone to uplifting society was lost to corruption?

Since President Zuma came to office, 1,4-million South Africans have lost their jobs. And a further 1,2-million South Africans without jobs have given up looking for work. With unemployment rising its difficult to actually trust a President who promised 5 million new jobs in 2011.

Our country needs direction, and it needs leadership in government that is singularly focused on service of the people.

Direction, in the form of thorough planning and selfless execution, has already been put on the table. It's called the National Development Plan.

The NDP embodies all that is good about South Africa and offers us a pathway from the perils we face. It entrenches good governance, over the self-interest that has overtaken government. It champions the market-economy, and it is about returning to the idea of creating opportunities for all people, not handing out opportunities to the connected few.

It is undeniable that things must change in a big way in government. 

Our leaders in government are paralysed. They cannot fully implement the NDP because they are being blocked by alliance politics that has lost touch with the people of this country. 

I identify with so many imperatives of the NDP, and they match my party's commitment to South Africa. 

The main difference between the NDP and the DA's jobs policy is that we're trying to grow the economy by 8% and the NDP is aiming for 5%.

When elected, we will create jobs through getting the basics right: Cutting the red tape around business, implementing the full youth wage subsidy to drive jobs for young people, and supporting small business with incentives and tax cuts.

But currently it seems our government is hell-bent on killing jobs.

Nothing epitomizes the breakdown of trust that comes with bad government decisions than the e-tolls springing up on Gauteng highways.

E-tolls is a plan to rob this province of jobs, and to make it harder for South Africans to make ends meet.

I have spent the last month on a listening tour around this province, and in so many places people are furious about e-tolls and the audacity of the ANC government to ram them through. Where was my voice, they ask?

In Orange Farm, a small business owner explained how he needs to buy stock in the city weekly, necessitating a drive that takes him through 4 e-toll gantries. This will add hundreds of rands to his monthly costs and impact his profits. 

A person who travels daily from Soweto to Midrand, a route that many take every day, will incur e-tolls of over R400 a month. Or Soshanguve to Johannesburg, also over R400 a month. So do not lie to us that we will only spend R100 a month.

Planning inherited from apartheid times has left most of this province's townships far from hubs of employment - e-tolls are set up to rob these very people of their livelihoods as they struggle each day to get ahead.

I can identify with Cosatu's vocal opposition to e-tolls today. But I cannot understand how Cosatu arrives at this position after backing e-tolls previously. 

Cosatu backed e-tolls through its members in cabinet, and the National Assembly. The fact is representatives in the governing alliance deployed by Cosatu - and who voted for e-tolls in Parliament. 

In Parliament, Cabinet and in local government Cosatu supports e-tolls, but publicly they oppose e-tolls.

I stand firm: E-tolls are daylight robbery of hard-working people. I will do everything I can to stop them, if elected Premier of Gauteng.

I believe fundamentally that we have an opportunity to bring the change this country needs.

I believe we can create jobs, broaden empowerment and achieve clean government. 

Issued by the DA, October 24 2013

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