SOUTH AFRICA FIRST

ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION OF SOUTH AFRICA

POLICY PRINCIPLES

"Political parties in South Africa have interpreted the country in various ways; the point, however, is to change it." 

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY

In April 2014, our country will be entering the third decade of democracy and replicates and tracks a predictable path, a predestination, that has characterized most post-colonial Africa ... the failure and abdication of duty by the former liberation movements to complement political freedom with meaningful socio-economic improvements in the lives of the majority of its citizens.

While significant progress has been achieved in the past 19 years in addressing societal transformation in general, it is true to assert that the shine and glitter of any progress made thus far has been totally eclipsed by the shear size, weight, magnitude and depth of the plethora of problems facing South Africans today.

To the majority of South Africans, the miracle of 1994 has yet to manifest itself in a form of tangible improvements in their day-to-day material lives. As intended beneficiaries of freedom and liberation, they are yet to be freed and liberated from their untold misery, including chronic unemployment, abject poverty, gaping inequality, pandemic diseases and a future that is getting dimmer by the day.

Today, the majority of South Africans, who see themselves not as net winners of their hard-won freedom, but as net losers, are not prepared to accept their current status quo any longer.

They are now beginning to stake their claim to what ‘rightfully belongs to them" ...freedom and the right to participate, without hindrance or prejudice, in all opportunities made possible by the struggles they and their brethren fought and sacrificed their lives.

They are refusing to live in a country that, in the past 19 years, has been misruled and reduced into the most unequal society in the world today! They are refusing to live in a country that is on a fast descent into anarchy and lawlessness. They are refusing to be part of a nation that is beginning to display symptoms and signs of a failed state.

1.2 IS CHANGE INEVITABLE IN SOUTH AFRICA?

One of the conditions for change to occur in society is a crisis in the old and obsolete system of governance. Such a crisis usually manifests itself in worsening economic as well as social-political conditions in society.

However, for change to become inevitable, this crisis must grow extremely acute and result in a build-up of social-political conditions necessary for change. Symptoms of profound and acute crisis of the old system usually manifest themselves in the following:-

i. a crisis in the policy of the ruling classes, when it is impossible for them to maintain their rule without any change,

ii. the suffering and want of the majority of the population have grown more acute than usual and

iii. as a consequence of the above causes, there is a considerable increase in the activity of the masses, who are drawn by all the circumstances into independent radical action.

When we consider the above in relation to South Africa, it will not be inaccurate to postulate that the conditions necessary for change to occur and to become inevitable, can be discerned today, as seen in the following:-

i. The wide-spread popular disenchantment with the ruling party's dismal performance of the past 19 years as evidenced in the rapidly increasing incidences of ‘service delivery' protests, called the Rebellion of the Poor elsewhere; increasingly independent industrial action by workers (including workers in the agricultural sector) outside the bargaining council framework; increasing incidences of popular protests by civil society in general (anti-etolls, equal education movement, street traders, etc.).

ii. The inability of the ruling party to provide leadership and solutions to deepening crisis in a stagnant economy that is incapable of a) creating jobs to more than 50% (this is the true statistic) of its unemployed population b) reducing gapping inequality among its citizens and c) eradicating abject poverty that is decimating the majority of its population.

iii. The deepening crisis within the ranks of the ruling party itself as evidenced by internal fights; wholesale and arbitrary dissolution of national, provincial and regional structures, creation of fraudulent structures, manipulation of conferences and murders as cadres fight over positions to access resources of the state; deepening cracks in the alliance partners, including weakening of COSATU and its once powerful affiliates; all these and other factors have crippled the ruling party to a point of in-coherence and rendered it increasingly incapable of managing its own affairs, let alone those of governing the country.

1.3 ERA OF VOLATILITY IN OUR ELECTORAL SYSTEM?

Taken together, the above factors have converged and not only produced a crisis of political legitimacy on the part of the ruling party, but also debunked the long-held twin myths of the ‘permanent majority' for the ruling party and the ‘predictability of outcome' in the South African electoral politics.

For the first time in the post 1994 history of South Africa, the element of volatility now exist in our electoral politics.

It is against the above background that the chances and opportunities of both old and new political parties in the 2014 general election should be appraised and appreciated.

Needless to say, any political party that wishes to capture a disproportionate share of the electorate in 2014 must build the vision and strategies as well as the requisite competencies that will make a disproportionate contribution to the expectations of South Africans about their conditions now and the future of their dreams.

2. THE SOUTH AFRICAN ECONOMY - INHERENT FAULTLINES

2.1 STRUCTURAL FLAWS OF THE APARTHEID SYSTEM

Firstly, any development plan that proposes to address the structural flaws in the socio-economic and political make-up of South Africa today, must move from the premise that apartheid was a system and, like any other system in society and in nature, it is a construct which, every time its operates, will yield the same results or outcome.

The failure on the part of the ruling party to comprehend the concept of systems has produced permanent fault lines in the conceptual framework of policy origination and development. These permanent fault lines are inherent in almost every piece of policy aimed at addressing the embedded albatross around the neck of South Africa, namely, inequality, poverty and unemployment.

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SOUTH AFRICAN ECONOMY - INHERENT FAULTLINE #1

SA First is of the firm view that any policy formulation that proposes to advance the ideals of freedom, justice, liberty and equality that are enshrined in our Constitution, must take as its departure point the total dismantling of the apartheid system in all facets and areas of human life in South Africa.

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2.2 THE CURSE OF CODESA REVISITED

Secondly, while the CODESA processes (and the negotiated settlement that resulted there from) were a logical way to end a conflict that failed to produce clear victors, it is an historic fact that continues to escape analysts and commentators that the ANC unilaterally extended its responsibility beyond negotiations to end apartheid to that of arrogating to itself the mandate to negotiate the future of South Africans, as encapsulated in the aftermath of CODESA and the so-called sunset clauses.

Even when the ruling party was given a resounding victory and a new popular mandate in the first democratic election in 1994, it squandered that opportunity and caged itself inside the confines of agreements reached during the negotiation processes. The net result of this big sell-out deal was that one component of apartheid (the legislative arm) was replaced, while other critical components (subsystems) of the apartheid system (economic, the state, socio-political, etc.) were left intact.

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SOUTH AFRICAN ECONOMY - INHERENT FAULTLINE #2

SA First will initiate a national process to re-visit the agreements that were concluded at the CODESA negotiations (and those that were concluded on the eve of these negotiations) and review those agreements that continue to act as impediments to the advancement of the national agenda of freedom, justice and equality.

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2.3 NATIONAL INTEREST AND GLOBALIZATION

Thirdly, any plan that is aimed at turning the fortunes of South Africa around must not only acknowledge, but must also put at the centre of process conceptualization, scenario planning and strategy crafting, the omnipresence and direct impact of globalization on our country.

Globalization, together with its institutions such as International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and other multilateral organization such as the European Union, is a system of international economic order and trade amongst nations.

Globalization does have an ideology and, together with it, a political governance regime that supports and perpetuates its existence, ‘a global governance without a global government'. Its ideology and political governance system are best seen in and expressed by three interlinked and intertwined instruments of globalization, namely:-

a. prescription of fiscal policies

b. privatization of state owned enterprises and public utilities

c. liberalization (opening up) of the country's markets to international competition.

It is within this world order that the fortunes of all rich nations are determined, mainly by the extent to which they influence, or even control this global system.

Needless to say, the misfortunes of less rich and poor nations are largely a function of their subjugation by and subservience to this international system.

In the final analysis, what sets richer nations apart from poor ones is the ability of an individual nation-state to assert itself and exercise relative influence on and control over how it relates to globalization.

This is called "National Interest" ... a statement of intent and declarations derived from the values that a nation prizes most - liberty, freedom and security; values that can only be realized in the context of the nation's physical survival, economic prosperity and political sovereignty. Clearly, national interest is an indispensable instrument that determines the fate of nations.

It goes without saying therefore that, the ability of a nation-state to advance its national interests relative to this international system will, to the largest extent, determine its standing and influence in the world arena. Inversely, a nation-state whose socio-political and economic policies are not underpinned by a viable and internationally competitive national interest strategy, is highly likely to become a subservient and externally dominated state, a failed and condemned state.

A closer look at the 19 year post-apartheid history of South Africa will reveal that the country has failed to develop a viable and internationally competitive national interest strategy and the attendant national security strategy.

On the contrary, the subjugation of our national sovereignty to control by the institutions of globalization has lead to the erratic and flawed nature of our policies in virtually all key drivers of national growth and prosperity in the spheres of government, as well as in state-owned entities, and rendered our country a peripheral player even on matters affecting its own internal affairs. It is this glaring failure of the National Development Plan (to be grounded on national interest) that will render it a stillborn. This does not, by any means, espouses an isolationist policies vis-à-vis globalization. On the contrary, South Africa is an active member of the global community of nations.

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SOUTH AFRICAN ECONOMY - INHERENT FAULTLINE #3

SA First believes that our national interest should dictate to us that we participate in globalization on terms favourable to the interest of the country. 

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3. THE NEW BEGINNING

3.1 ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION PRINCIPLES - THE FOUNDATION

South Africa First economic and transformation policy tenets are premised on the principles and values of our Constitution which enjoins us, among other things:-

i. ‘to recognise the injustices of the past'

ii. ‘to honour those who suffered for justice and freedom' and

iii. ‘to respect those who have worked to build and develop our land'.

Our Constitution further require of us to:-

i. uphold and protect human dignity, the achievement of human rights and freedoms

ii. uphold and protect non-racialism and non-sexism, and

iii. uphold and protect a government that is accountable, responsive and open.

Last but not least, our Constitution is founded on the Bill of Rights that is a cornerstone of our democracy and require of us to continually work towards the progressive realization of socio-economic rights.

3.2 THE NEW VISION - SOUTH AFRICAN DREAM

In working towards the creation of the New South African Dream, SA First has, through a national consultative process that started in April 2013 and involved numerous meetings with various stakeholders where South Africans were given an opportunity to make their inputs. It is this principle of public consultation that has enabled us put together a viable, solid, sustainable and compelling vision and view of tomorrow's opportunities that will enable us, as a nation, to can move preemptively to secure the future.

The ‘New South African Dream' must create a strategic architecture that provides the blueprint for building competencies needed to be competitive in the world arena. The ‘New South African Dream' must identify what we must be doing right now to intercept the future. The New South African Dream' is the essential link between today and tomorrow, between the short and long term.

Unlike scenario forecasting (which is the hallmark of the National Development Plan), which typically starts with what is, and then projects forward to what might happen, the ‘New South African Dream' starts with what could be, and then works backwards to what must happen now for that future to come about.

The architecture of the ‘New South African Dream' must be premised upon a particular point of view about the long term and competitive position the country has to build in the next decade or so - hence it must convey a sense of direction.

The architecture of the ‘New South African Dream' must be premised upon a competitively unique point of view about the future and must hold out to South Africans the promise of exploring new opportunities and possibilities - hence it must convey a sense of discovery.

The architecture of the ‘New South African Dream' must have an emotional edge to it and must be a goal all South Africans perceive as inherently good and worthwhile - hence it must imply a sense of destiny.

4. KEY DRIVERS OF ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION

A country's chance to survive and prosper is largely determined by its ability to define and utilize its unique core competencies and competitive advantages in relation to other nations in its region and globally. These unique core competencies and competitive advantages may include the country's geography, size of land and population, natural endowments, knowledge base and skills, etc.

SA First proposes the following as key drivers of economic growth and transformation which, together, can contribute towards creating the core competencies and competitive advantages required to put our country on a sustainable growth path.

4.1 THE ROLE OF THE STATE

The history of the past 19 years has amply demonstrated that market forces alone, which in our country are firmly founded on an exclusionary economic order of the past era of apartheid, are incapable of promoting and advancing an egalitarian society as the basis for the achievement of the ideals enshrined in our constitution.

On the contrary, these market forces continue to operate today and have connived with the surviving apartheid-era subsystems in society as well as the people-hostile policies of the ruling party to turn South Africa into the most unequal society in the world!

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THE ROLE OF THE STATE - KEY DRIVER #1

Accordingly, SA First will redefine the role of the state and position it within a framework of moral, historical and constitutional obligations, to perform the following roles:-

the protector of all its citizens and the sovereignty of its independence and the security of the Republic

the enabler of conducive living and working conditions that will allow all its citizens to realize their full potential

the facilitator of national and international political, economic and social environments that are favourable to advance the country's national interest, security and prosperity

the custodian of the nation's most prized possessions, including freedom, liberty and justice for its citizens, security of its survival, growth and prosperity as well as its natural endowments.

SA First is of the firm view that the above roles of the state will correct the archaic, elitist and exclusionary nature of our current economic model, and introduce an inclusive and participatory model.

SA First will therefore work towards achieving an economic dispensation based on the principles of inclusion and cooperative participation that will benefit all its citizens.

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4.2 SCRAPPING BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

Nowhere is the failure of the policies of the ruling party in the past 19 years so glaring than in the economy that has remained untransformed to reflect the demographics of the country's population. Today, almost 20 years into democracy, our economy is still owned 98% by white South Africans. The remaining two percent is shared among the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) benefactors dominated by a non-productive and predatory elitist group of ANC politicos.

This elitist and predatory group has achieved nothing except to deprive deserving Black entrepreneurs of opportunities to grow their enterprises and to contribute meaningfully to the needs of our economy, including job creation.

The failure of the BEE policy of the ruling party as well as the farce of its ‘trickle-down fantasy' is evident and getting exposed daily in the real lives of many South Africans who still live in conditions of untold misery, condemned to colonial-era status of providers of labour only and continue to be excluded from the ownership and control of the economy.

South Africans need to acknowledge and accept that the continued exclusion of Blacks from the mainstream of the economy as producers is the single most important cause of the sorry state of the nation today.

As a nation, we need to embrace a fundamental reality and an imperative of existential importance that one of the fundamental pre-condition for our democracy to thrive and South Africa to work is a just, fair and demographically equitable distribution of wealth among its population, and the unconditional inclusion of Black South Africans in the ownership and control of the economy. You exclude them at your own peril!

4.3 REPLACING BEE WITH BLACK ECONOMIC SELF-EMPOWERMENT (BESE)

In order to realize the objective of achieving a just, fair and demographically equitable distribution of wealth among its population, and the unconditional inclusion of Black South Africans in the ownership and control of the economy;

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BLACK ECONOMIC SELF-EMPOWERMENT (BESE) - KEY DRIVER #2

SA First will work towards the total scrapping of the current obsolete and non-productive BEE policy of the ruling party and its government and in its place put a sound, productive, popular and inclusive Black Economic Self-Empowerment (BESE).

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BESE, a policy initiative of SA First, represents a paradigm shift in addressing the current crisis of abject poverty, gapping inequality, chronic unemployment facing the Black majority of South Africans, and the disintegration of our communities and the general rot that has set in our society today. 

At a practical, individual and community levels, BESE find expression in ‘VUKA - TSOHA MOVEMENT', a national economic, social and cultural movement of South Africans to do what ought to have long happened in this country since 1994, namely, to challenge Black South Africans to be masters of their own destiny and take their rightful place in our country, and above all, in the ownership and control of the economy.

Through ‘VUKA - TSOHA MOVEMENT', history is presenting Black South Africans with a rare opportunity since the dawn of democracy twenty years ago ... to break with their past colonial status as labourers and consumers only; to shatter their image as a culpable race, an ‘insolvent debtor' and a liability to other races of the world.

‘VUKA - TSOHA MOVEMENT' is not an ideology ... it is a consciousness. It is not politics ... it is a way of life!

‘VUKA - TSOHA MOVEMENT' will use the power and sheer weight of numbers and the collective buying and consumption might of Black South Africans as the single most important strategic and competitive advantage, and a tool to tackle their continued and deliberate exclusion from the ownership of the economy.

‘VUKA - TSOHA MOVEMENT' will convert this buying and consumption power of Black South Africans into the ‘Black Rand' - to challenge Black South Africans to deal deadly blows to their current status as a consumption-only race.

The ‘VUKA - TSOHA MOVEMENT' will challenge Black South Africans to redeem themselves and consign to the rubbish bin of history their current image as a culpable race, an ‘insolvent debtor' and implore Black South Africans commit to use the ‘Black Rand' to:-

i. consciously support Black owned and controlled enterprises

ii. consciously support initiatives and endevours of Black South Africans that seek to create wealth, enterprises and job opportunities

iii. consciously support initiatives and endevours that seek to restore dignity, pride and the culture of Black people.

Black South Africans can be masters of their own destiny only when they practice the following mantra of ‘VUKA - TSOHA MOVEMENT':-

We only consume what we produce or have shares in.

Our consumption power is our ticket out of poverty

Being producers is our ticket to wealth

4.4 THE CURSE OF DEAD CAPITAL

The post-1994 continuation of human settlements construction along apartheid-era spatial planning (townships) and the provision of more than 2 million poor-quality houses (and not properties), constitutes one of the most glaring failures of the ruling party to comprehend the foundational importance of property acquisition and accumulation by the Black majority as a pre-condition for their participation in our capital(ist) economic system.

This gross dereliction of duty on the part of the ruling party has condemned whole generation of Black South Africans into permanent exclusion from participating in the economy, since the ‘properties' they own are incapable of conversion into capital. Black South Africans have, in the past, accumulated dead capital, and continue to do so to this day!

At the root cause of the accumulation of this dead capital is the operation of the following mystery:-

Why do white-owned enterprises succeed in South Africa while those owned by Black South Africans fail?

It is only when this mystery is resolved that a clear picture will emerge and the true potential of Black South Africans will be realized and its energy released.

What lies buried below this mystery and has eluded many economists is how, in South Africa, capital - in the form of property - operated for decades (until today) at the exclusion of the Black majority, thus excluded them from participating directly in the process of capital accumulation that underpins the current ownership pattern of the economy in favour of the white population.

This mystery is to be found in the multiple property systems that characterise the South African property market even today, that can be grouped in the following three main categories:-

i. a formal property system for its white population that is integrated into the Western formal property system

ii. an informal property system for Black South Africans that is confined to Black areas and detached from the Western formal property system

iii. a traditional and informal property system in Black rural areas that were and still are excluded from the South African economic system.

It is not inconceivable therefore, to suggest that racially based methodologies were used in the past to detach the latter two forms of informal property system from integration into the white and Western formal property system, thus disadvantaging the majority of South Africans.

4.5 ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL AMONG BLACK SOUTH AFRICANS

It goes without saying therefore, that any policy that hopes to include Black South Africans in the main stream of the economy, should be premised on the following principles:-

i. The economic basis for sustainable growth in South Africa and the creation of jobs is through the deployment of accumulated indigenous capital in the entrepreneurial sector of the economy.

ii. Accumulated indigenous capital in our economy is highly concentrated in white business (98%). Its ability to be deployed to create desired growth is limited by its size as a percentage/ratio of the population. As a finite quantum, it cannot be stretched beyond its limit.

iii. Sustainable economic growth and job creation in South Africa can only be realized through the growth in contribution to the GDP by the Black entrepreneurial sector.

iv. In order for the Black entrepreneurial sector to realize its full growth potential, it is necessary for Black South Africans to be fully integrated into the formal property system of the country.

v. For the above full integration to happen and be expedited, it is necessary for the state to intervene and to remove all racially biased impediments to property and facilitate the acceleration of property accumulation for Black South Africans that is capable of conversion into capital.

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ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL BY BLACK SOUTH AFRICANS - KEY DRIVER #3

In order to achieve the above, SA First will, among other measures, work towards the de-racialization of the property system and the establishment of a State Housing/Mortgage Bank to expedite the accumulation of capital by Black South Africans. 

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4.6 THE SME SECTOR - THE HOME OF BLACK ENTREPRENEURS

In support of Black Economic Self-Empowerment (BESE), SA First will seek to review all legislation and regulations that act as impediments to the advancement of Black South Africans in particular, and in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector in general as the home for Black entrepreneurs.

SA First focus on the SME as the home of Black business is informed by international experience as well as the writings of development experts all over the world who have identified the small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME) as a sector that has the potential to can contribute to vibrant local economies.

Without exception, in all economies in the world, both developed and developing, the SMME sector absorbs between 60% and 70% of the total workforce! This is also true for South Africa, with a proviso though, that it applies only to white owned SMMEs.

This glaring omission of the Black SMME sector is one of the major failures of the economic policies of the ruling party in the past nineteen years to develop and implement a sound policy for the SMME sector.

This failure has been so resounding that it resulted in government leading the academia to abandon scientific research and robust discussions on developmental economics and elected to escape into the world of fiction and took solace in pseudo-economics and invented terms such as the ‘second economy".

There is no such a thing as the ‘second economy'. There are two main pillars in every economy, namely production and consumption. The so-called second economy is made exclusively of consumers. It can only be a market for producers and not an economy.

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SME SECTOR - THE HOME OF BLACK ENTREPRENEURS - KEY DRIVER #4

Other policy shifts that SA First will introduce to support both BESE and the Black entrepreneurial sector will include the use of following instruments of state:-

the state procurement budget

overhaul the current flawed procurement legislation

overhaul and optimise the country's Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) strategy through the creation of a dedicated SME Ministry

consolidation of all development finance institutions into a single State Bank to optimise capital funding support for the SME sector 

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4.7 THE SOCIAL AND SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

The current world economic crisis, including the inability of states to meet the needs of citizen, as well as accompanying civilizational crisis (climate change, environmental degradation, etc), have prompted activists in many countries to seek alternatives to the current hegemonic system of globalization.

Among the most prominent and widely practiced of these alternatives are the social economy and the solidarity economy. Notwithstanding the contested definitions of these two alternatives, the most common feature running through the different versions of these ‘economies' is the resolve of humanity to expand participation in socio-economic activity of nations beyond the current dominant and exclusionary profit-driven market forces or private sector model to a model that characterised by social inclusion, democratic participation and community building.

In South Africa, the social and solidarity economy is home to budding enterprises, including the cooperative movement. This sector, while still in its infancy in South Africa, has the potential to contribute immensely to the socio-economic upliftment of many citizens.

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THE SOCIAL AND SOLIDARITY ECONOMY - KEY DRIVER #5

Far from been seen as playing second fiddle to the mainstream economy, SA Firstviews the social/solidarity economy as strategic and a great leveler and equalizer of access to opportunity to the many, as well as playing an important role as a conscience of our socio-economic policies.

Accordingly, SA First will create conducive environment for this sector to grow, and support people-centred economic formations such as cooperatives, employee ownership schemes, local exchange systems, social investment funds, worker controlled pension funds, fair trade, community supported agriculture, the green economy, participatory budgeting, open source movement, etc.

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4.8 MUNICIPALITIES AND LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (LED)

Various national and provincial legislation require every municipalities to formulate an Integrated Development Plan (IDP) which is a tool to ensure that social, economic, environmental, infrastructure and spatial aspects of development are planned in an integrated manner.

Local Economic Development (LED), on the other hand, forms part of the broader IDP and places the responsibility of driving local economic development on local councils. It calls for local government to promote a dynamic partnership with the private sector, community based organisations and other stakeholders, that will contribute towards sustainable economic development of particular regions.

The successful implementation of both the IDP and LED are constitutional obligations of local councils as per Chapter 7 of our Constitution (Section 152, subsection 1 and 2), which enjoins local municipalities to act in a manner that satisfy the object for which they were created, namely:-

i. to provide democratic and accountable government for local communities to ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner

ii. to promote social and economic development

iii. to promote a safe and healthy environment; and

iv. to encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government,

If the reports of the Auditor General in the past years are anything to go by, then it is apparent that almost all the 284 local municipalities in the country have failed to meet the above constitutional obligations.

The level of corruption, mass looting of public resources, incompetence and failure to deliver services, especially to needy communities, have rendered these local municipalities dysfunctional and bankrupted to a point that more and communities are beginning to call for these municipalities to be placed under administration in terms of our Constitution.

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MUNICIPALITIES AND LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (LED) - KEY DRIVER #6

SA First is of the firm view that the continued rule of these local councils not only flaunts our Constitution, but is also a violation of the rights of our people to a functional government with untold consequences, including the collapse of the provision of basic services.

Given the extent of this rot that constitutes a national crisis of local government, SA First not only supports communities' call for these dysfunctional local councils to be placed under administration, but will also work towards bringing the 2016 local government election forward to the end of 2014 in order to put an end to the misery of our people and the illogical practice of holding separate elections for local government.

Among the legislations that SA First will seek to review and reform include the Division of Revenue Act (DORA) with a view allocate resources in the three spheres of government in a manner that prioritise local government.

Furthermore, SA First will review current legislation that is used to determine municipalities (demarcation board) with a view to reform the criteria used to be based on a viable tax base for each municipality.

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4.9 NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY

The economic history of South Africa is intrinsically intertwined with its natural resources which, even today, still determine the basis of its broader economic activity. The country's natural endowments, including land and the abundance of key strategic mineral resources are our prized possessions and provide us with rare and unique global competitive advantages.

These natural resources give us unrivalled and solid basis to develop unique core competencies and knowledge base to be world leaders in the exploitation, beneficiation and use of these key strategic resources.

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NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY - KEY DRIVER #7

SA First is of the firm view that the continued private ownership of the country's natural endowments is, if anything, unjust, unfair and morally indefensible and continue to rob citizens of their birth right to a fair and equitable access to our common inheritance.

In this regard, SA First will locate the state, as the custodian of national assets and endowments, to be a key player and acquire, with fair compensation, a strategic and majority shareholding in the exploitation, beneficiation and use of our natural resources. This strategic shareholding of the state will be done in a tripartite venture with the private sector and local communities for the benefit of public interest and the common good.

With regards to land, SA First is of the firm view that until this issue is resolved by all South Africans, instead of it being skirted as it has been the practice until now, any hope of an inclusive and equitable access to the economy by all South Africans will remain a pipe dream. Accordingly, SA First will work towards a National Summit on Land in which SA First will advance a position which espouses state ownership of land beyond reasonable personal use.

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4.10 REVERSE PRIVATIZATION

As stated elsewhere in this document, the ruling party has failed, in the past 19 years to an economic policy that is grounded on solid national interest, thus leading to the institutions of globalization (IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organization) virtually controlling our economy. This control of our economy by these institutions is more visible in the number of state utilities that have been privatized in the past 19 years.

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REVERSE PRIVATIZATION - KEY DRIVER #8

In order to regain control of our economy and the political sovereignty that has been equally compromised, SA First is of the firm view that a review of all transactions that privatized and corporatized state owned entities and public utilities should be undertaken with a view to determine if these were done to promote national interest.

It is the strategic intent of this proposed review that such wholesale privatization of state entities and public utilities that were concluded in the past years should be reversed and such entities and utilities be reverted to the ownership and control of the state.

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In the same vein, SA First will review other privatization transactions that were concluded before and at the dawn of the democratic dispensation, including the privatization of Sasol and Iscor(now Arcelor-Mittal) in particular. The moral justification for the call to reverse-privatize these former state enterprises is premised on the fact that these enterprises were built using tax-payers' money and the IP that was developed by the state.

Secondly and most importantly, these enterprises fit the bill of strategic and key industries which have a huge impact on national interest and national security. Their continued ownership by private entities therefore poses a risk to national interest.

4.11 NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY

Among the key pillars that ensures socio-political stability of a nation is the issue of food security. Our nation must define for itself the most optimal fusion of three main components in the food value chain, namely:-

i. market economics,

ii. the promotion of a viable agricultural sector

iii. equal and just access to the agricultural sector by all citizens and

iv. food security for the country.

A viable national food security strategy should be premised on an enabling and facilitation role of the state in protecting what is essentially a vulnerable sector of our economy, as well as promoting productivity in an environment that is centred around the human dignity of our citizens engaged in that sector.

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NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY - KEY DRIVER #9

In this regard, SA First will endeavour to promote this important sector of our economy and protect it in the same way that this sector is protected by our trading partners which have clearly defined national interest strategies.

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4.12 NATIONAL ENERGY

The efficient, adequate, uninterrupted and sustainable generation and supply of energy (electricity, petrol, diesel and gas) as a critical driver of growth and prosperity, is vital and indispensable in planning any national prosperity strategy.

The negative experiences of South Africans with Eskom in the past years as well as the ever-spiraling costs of energy to the economy and consumers are indicative of a government that lacks a comprehensive, responsive and anticipatory energy security strategy.

Furthermore, the recent cabinet approval of more than R1 Trillion nuclear energy programme for the country raises questions around the country's energy strategy.

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NATIONAL ENERGY - KEY DRIVER #10

SA First is of the firm view that our country does not need nuclear energy, and that such a decision is ill-informed and not in our national interests and, accordingly, should be rejected and the programme scrapped. National interest should always stay clear of ideology, political expediency and lobby groups.

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4.13 DE-AGENCIFICATION AND TRIMMING OF GOVERNMENT

One of the abominable aberrations of the current administration in the past 19 years has been the wholesale out-sourcing of government, including thinking! Through the creation of hundreds of government agencies, the ANC government has engineered one of the most elaborate scam of mass looting of government resources in the country's post-apartheid history.

Contrary to the fantasized myth of creating efficiencies in government, these agencies have proven to be nothing but ATMs and honey pots for connected politicos of the ruling party to fleece billions of rand through bloated staffing of these agencies and procurement opportunities that continue to be limitless sources of massive self-enrichment by these politicos.

Along the side of agencification of government, the ruling party has created a highly bloated administration and the public sector whose size is disproportionate to our population. With over 3-09 million strong public sector representing a whopping 22.6% of the total work force, and 34 national departments for a population of slightly above 50 million, South Africa spends way above international benchmarks on its public sector at a cost of 12% of its GDP!

This represents a huge drag on the fiscus, robbing millions of citizens of their fair share of the resources of the country. Compare this to the USA with a 2.9 million federal government employees and a population that is six times ours (300 million) and 14 federal departments for an economy that is 45 times ours size at USD 14 trillion!) 

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DE-AGENCIFICATION AND TRIMMING OF GOVERNMENT - KEY DRIVER #10

SA First will review all national and provincial departments with a view to grouping them along sectoral clusters, thus eliminating the excess national ministries from the current 34 to less than 18!

SA First will also review all agencies of government, in the three spheres, with an intention to de-agencify government and relocate these entities as directorates in government departments.

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4.14 FAILURE OF GOVERNANCE AND CORRUPTION 

Corruption and mass looting of the public purse have grown under the ruling party's administration to a gigantic negative industry that is depriving and robbing South Africans of the much needed resources to ameliorate their lot. As one of the major key performance indicators (KPI) of the ANC administration, this evil cancer is devouring into the moral fibre of our society, breeding unprecedented and abominable sub-cultures of greed, gluttony and crass materialism.

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FAILURE OF GOVERNANCE AND CORRUPTION - KEY DRIVER #11

SA First undertakes to deal deadly blows to this scourge in our society by promoting tough measures including:-

the total ban of civil servants and politicians, in all spheres of government, from engaging in business relationships with any government entity or agency. This ban will be enforced with a mandatory jail term of 15 years for those found guilty of its breach.

Reform of our supply chain system (procurement) and removal of the powers to award tenders and contracts from all tender committees and boards in favour of a non-permanent and external tender award committees made up of private citizens and professionals randomly drawn a la lottery from a revolving roster. 

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4.15 FAILURE TO REALIZE SOCIO-ECONOMIC RIGHTS

The Bill of Rights, described in our Constitution as the cornerstone of our democracy, has outlined socio-economic rights as the right to education, right to housing, right to adequate standard of living and the right to health, the right to food, the right to water, and enjoins the state to ‘take reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources to achieve the progressive realization of these rights'.

The high levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality and the World Bank report that flags South Africa as the most unequal society in the world; all these factors would negate any claim by the ruling party that the current administration has taken all the ‘reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources to achieve the progressive realization of these rights.' 

4.15.1 ON EDUCATION

That our national education system is one of the worst in the world, is no longer a subject for debates and contestation. SA First shares the widely held view by all South Africans that the key to prosperity in our country is via a sound and functional education system.

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EDUCATION - KEY DRIVER #12

Accordingly, SA First proposes the following as the pillars that must support our education system:-

Quality equalisation of educational facilities in public schools in the three critical areas of education, namely, academic, sporting and cultural.

Universal, compulsory and free access to education up to tertiary level

Reconfiguration of the secondary schooling programme into a two-tier system to include compulsory technical skills training and development from grade 10.

Second chance learning (technical development) for youth without skills.

Upgrade of qualifications of the current ‘class' of teachers to tertiary levels

Upgrade of teaching profession to tertiary levels.

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Issued by South Africa First

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