DOCUMENTS

The EFF's 2019 election manifesto (III)

Fighters' policy on mining, agriculture, financial system, justice system, fiscal framework etc.

This is the third part of the EFF's 2019 election manifesto. The second part can be read here.

- MINING

1. The EFF government will nationalise all mines and mineral wealth in South Africa by the year 2023.

2. The EFF government will allocate key shares in South Africa’s mineral and petroleum resources to the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

3. The EFF government will establish an efficient and impactful state mining company to reposition the state as a central player in the development, management and utilisation of South African wealth for industrial growth and job creation.

4. The EFF government will, through state management and control of mineral wealth in the country, lead a process of rapid beneficiation of South Africa’s mineral resources, to ensure that the bulk of South Africa’s minerals are processed and developed into finished products within the country.

5. The EFF government will establish mining development and beneficiation schools in Rustenburg in the North West, Kimberley in the Northern Cape, Phalaborwa in Limpopo, West Rand in Gauteng, and Witbank in Mpumalanga. These schools will focus on localised beneficiation solutions for mineral resources found in the areas.

6. The EFF government will ensure the rapid development of South Africa’s productive forces in the mining industry by actively promoting the development of black industrial and manufacturing entrepreneurs, cooperatives and small and medium enterprises.

7. The EFF government will ensure that the local beneficiation of mineral resources takes place through a legislative mandate by introducing an amendment to the Minerals and Petroleum Development Act, ensuring that quotas are introduced on the exportation of raw mineral resources, that no more than 30% of raw mineral resources are exported, and that 70% or more of raw mineral resources are processed into finished industrial products within South Africa.

8. The EFF government will introduce amendments to the MPRDA to ensure that the manufacturing and processing of mineral resources are transformed and prioritise the participation of black companies in mineral beneficiation.

9. The EFF government will, through the state mining company, strategically exploit the country’s coal resources to ensure affordable and readily available coal for rapid expansion of Eskom’s ability to generate and redistribute electricity.

10. The EFF government will ensure that a state-owned mining company will start operating at all coal mines owned by Eskom and will export surplus coal to generate revenue to the fiscus.

11. The EFF government will commission research towards ensuring a sustainable method of extracting shale gas to diversify the country’s energy sources and build up Eskom’s capacity to reduce its dependence on coal.

12. The EFF government will regulate and promote small- scale mining in Kimberley in the Northern Cape, the Namaqualand Coast in the Northern Cape, Marikana in North West, and Emalahleni in Mpumalanga. This will ensure community and locally driven mining development.

13. The EFF government will listen to the people of Xolobeni and take direction from them on any development that must happen in the area, including their views on mining development.

14. The EFF government will force mining companies that left denuded mining landscapes to invest in the rehabilitation of these mining areas. As such, the EFF government will force Anglo to rehabilitate the entire Namaqualand Coast and create sustainable jobs from mining rehabilitation.

15. The EFF government will revitalise abandoned dying mining towns such as Welkom in the Free State, Okiep and Poffader in the Northern Cape, and will create mining-based manufacturing industries.

16. The EFF Government will track all ex-mineworkers or their close family members and ensure that each and every one of them gain access to their pension funds.

- FINANCIAL SECTOR

1. The EFF government will nationalise the South African Reserve Bank and discontinue its private ownership.

2. The EFF government will finalise the licensing of the Post Bank.

3. The EFF government will transfer ownership of African Bank to a restructured state-owned bank.

4. The EFF government will establish national and provincial state-owned banks in the following sectors by the year 2021:

§ Retail state-owned bank, which will be built from the banking assets of African Bank,

§ Agricultural state-owned bank, which will be built from the banking assets and capacity of the Land Bank,

§ Housing state-owned bank, which will be a new bank, and

§ Social assistance bank, which will be built from the assets and capacity of the Post Bank.

5. The EFF government will pass a special appropriation bill allocating R100 billion to the Sovereign Wealth Fund in the 2021 budget.

6. The EFF government will pass a special appropriation bill to write off some debts in state-owned companies and to convert the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) debt into equity.

7. The EFF government will work with the PIC for the state-owned asset manager to offload assets, where it is overexposed, into the prudent politically insulated management of the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

8. Under the EFF government, executives and directors involved in collusion to manipulate currency trading will face jail sentences.

9. The EFF government will lower capital adequacy requirements for new banks owned by Africans, in particular, black and women owners.

10. The EFF government will issue a minimum of 50% of insurance licences to companies controlled and wholly owned by black people.

11. The EFF government will pass legislation to make it a requirement for other companies that hold insurance licenses to include a minimum of 30% black ownership, 30% women ownership and 50% women and youth control in management and boards.

12. The EFF government will limit the number of insurance licences issued to majority foreign-owned insurance companies.

13. The EFF government will pass legislation for insurance companies to largely mandate black-owned asset management companies to manage their funds as a requirement to keep their license.

14. The EFF government will give banks and asset management companies 12 months to change their ownership to mainly black people, particularly African, with adequate ownership by women and people living with disabilities.

15. The EFF government will give banks and asset management companies six months to change their management to mainly black people, particularly Africans, so that they form the majority at all levels of management, with 50% of management being women and 10% being people living with disability.

16. The EFF government will establish an incubation programme for black asset managers to increase the share of industry assets managed by black firms to R2 trillion, with 50% women and 10% people living with disabilities as owners, by the year 2022.

17. The EFF government will increase ownership of shares in the JSE by black people, Africans in particular, to 30% by the year 2022.

18. The EFF government will establish a state-owned asset manager to manage municipal pensions of all municipalities by the year 2021.

19. The EFF government will regulate and cap interest rates on unsecured lending, home loans, service and bank charges.

20. The EFF government will pass legislation for banks to report a racial breakdown of their lending, interest rates and what the money was borrowed for annually.

21. The EFF government will pass legislation that will disallow banks to be transaction advisors and lenders in the same transaction.

22. The EFF government will amend the Pension Funds Act to increase investment in private equity for infrastructure development, SME development and land transformation venture capital to 50%.

23. The EFF government will pass legislation to disallow the repossession of properties that have been paid off for more than five years.

24. The EFF government will establish a relief fund for people who are in financial distress and cannot service their home loans owing to them losing their jobs.

25. The EFF government will pass legislation to disallow house mortgage repayment periods to exceed ten years.

26. Under the EFF government, a minimum of 50% from development finance institutions will benefit women and youth-owned and controlled businesses.

27. The EFF government will introduce a policy of aggressive social and green investments by all government-guaranteed pension funds and mandated asset managers as well as equally impactful shareholder activism.

28. The EFF government will introduce a free and user- friendly search engine to trace the billions of rands currently locked up in unclaimed insurance benefits, most of which belong to black people and the poor.

29. The EFF government will close down all illegal money lenders.

30. The EFF government will regulate and cap interest rates by money lenders.

- SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

1. The EFF government’s philosophical approach to social development and assistance shall be underpinned by two pillars: firstly, to primarily safeguard the economic social wellbeing of children, the elderly, pensioners and people with disabilities and, secondly, to constantly strive to reduce the number of South Africans who are solely dependent on social grants to a minimum. Reductions in dependency will be announced annually by the President in his/her State of the Nation Address.

2. The EFF government’s approach to social development and assistance will be integrated across all sectors, with automatic exemption of recipients of social grants from the many fees that the different spheres of government charge.

3. The EFF government’s philosophical approach to social development and assistance is to primarily safeguard the economic and social wellbeing of children, the elderly and people with disabilities.

4. The EFF government will substantially increase socials grants payable to different categories of people as follows:

- Grant for older persons to increase from R1 700 to R3 400 per month,

- Disability grant to increase from R1 700 to R3 400 per month,

- War veterans grant to increase from R1720 to R3 440 per month,

- Care dependency grant to increase from R1 700 to R3 400 per month,

- Child support grant to increase from R410 to R820 per month, and

- Foster child grant to increase from R960 to R1 920 per month.

5. The EFF government will provide recipients of social grants with free water and electricity.

6. The EFF government will make it illegal to lend money to recipients of social grants.

7. The EFF government will build multi-sectorial post- domestic and sexual violence facilities, shelters and social services centres to work with survivors and victims.

8. The EFF government will provide emergency housing, clothing and food to victims of fire, floods and unforeseen disasters.

9. The EFF government will produce sanitary products and distribute them for free in all clinics, district, regional, tertiary and central hospitals across the country by 2020.

10. The EFF government will provide treatment, post- treatment care and rehabilitation facilities for people suffering from drug abuse and violence.

11. The EFF government will ensure efficient adoption, foster care, co-parenting and guardianship services.

12. The EFF government will respect the right of all religions to exist.

13. The EFF government will work with religious leaders, churches and all religious institutions to promote the moral regeneration of society.

14. The EFF government will provide free transport to all pensioners, people living with disabilities and orphans to get to and from social grant pay points.

15. The EFF government will arrange for people who are sick and cannot get to social grant pay points to receive their grants and basic essentials on a monthly basis.

16. The EFF government will appoint a social worker for every ward by 2020.

17. Under the EFF government, all children living in child- headed households will be placed into foster care.

18. The EFF government will establish drug rehabilitation facilities.

- STATE CAPACITY

1. The EFF government will retain ownership of all state- owned companies and entities under the control of the state and ensure that they are all efficiently run and managed.

2. The EFF government will re-nationalise SASOL and ISCOR and maximally expand the capacity of the African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation (AEMFC) as a state-owned mining company.

3. The EFF government will establish a State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) which will consistently oversee state-owned companies and intervene when things go wrong.

4. The EFF government will position the bigger state- owned companies to start massive infrastructure and developmental investments in other parts of the world, particularly on the African continent.

5. The EFF government will create a Sovereign Wealth Fund that will, among other things, partner with foreign direct investors with the clear purpose of maximising job creation and combating illicit financial flows, tax avoidance and base erosion.

6. The EFF government will amend the Public Finance Management and Municipal Finance Management Acts to make it compulsory for all spheres of government to directly provide services in areas that are inherent functions of the state.

7. The EFF government will insource all outsourced security guards, cleaners, drivers, gardeners and general workers who work at government departments and facilities, hospitals, clinics, police stations, border post offices, correctional facilities, schools and state-owned companies, and it will employ an additional 80 000 workers within six months of being elected to government, with pension and leave benefits.

8. The EFF government will fill all the funded vacant positions in all government departments, clinics, schools, hospitals and provincially owned entities by June 2020.

9. The EFF government will immediately abolish tenders for:

- Cleaning services,

- Security guard services,

- Gardening, horticulture and landscaping services,

- Construction and maintenance services,

- Consultants,

- Professional services,

- Banking services,

- Telephone and internet services,

- The procurement of hospital linen and garments,

- IT services and electronic equipment,

- Provision of catering in all hospitals, correctional services and other government facilities, including state-owned companies,

- Rental of buildings,

- Travel services,

- Management, maintenance and repair of government vehicles,

- Building of schools,

- Building of roads and other infrastructure.

10. The EFF government will establish capacity to collectively and in bulk procure 80% of locally produced fruits and vegetables, paper, electronics, linen, garments, uniforms, wooden and plastic materials for construction, and store the goods to leverage economies of scale.

11. The EFF government will employ all public servants on a full-time basis, with a clear employment contract and performance agreement.

12. The EFF government will review and upgrade the salaries of teachers, nurses, police officials, soldiers, warders and all general workers to narrow the gap between the highest and lowest paid government workers.

13. A minimum of 50% of all senior positions in government must be occupied by women, with equal pay, by 2022.

14. The EFF government will mandate all government departments and state-owned entities to deposit documents into the South African National Archive Services annually.

15. The EFF government will publish the requirements for promotion and all public servants who were promoted on a quarterly basis.

16. The EFF government will disallow the use of bottled water in all government facilities, including state-owned entities. In the event that it is impractical to use tap water, bottled water will be purchased from black- owned companies, and women and youth-owned companies will be prioritised.

17. The EFF government will bank and pay all public servants’ salaries through a state-owned bank.

18. The EFF government will abolish the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) and employ all people in the programme on a full-time basis.

19. The EFF government will establish the following state- owned companies and provide them with strategic and financial support:

- A state-owned housing construction company,

- A state-owned roads construction company,

- A state-owned cement company,

- A state-owned pharmaceutical company,

- A state-owned mining company,

- A state-owned food stocking company (to regulate the prices of basic foodstuffs and guarantee food security for all), and

- State-owned banks.

20. The EFF government will compile a detailed list of black professionals, i.e. teachers, nurses, engineers, quantity surveyors, project managers, geographers, chemists, architects, biologists, environmental scientists, psychologists, social workers, accountants, financial analysts, audiologists and speech therapists, dentists, dieticians and nutritionists, pharmacists, applications programmers, computer network professionals, database and network professionals, software developers, system administrators and analysts, geologists, meteorologists, etc. for placement into strategic positions. They will undergo a training programme and mentorship in government departments and state-owned entities, and will be responsible for building houses, roads and schools; developing curricula; managing state-owned information technology systems, etc.

21. The EFF government will employ graduates from institutions of higher learning in government entities, including state-owned entities, immediately after they have graduated.

22. The EFF government will pay a once-off grant of R1 million to all black graduates who enrol for their doctoral studies.

23. The EFF will pass legislation for the new government to appoint all directors-general, boards and CEOs of state-owned entities within six months after the elections.

24. The EFF government will establish a state-owned burial scheme to bury the poor with dignity at no cost.

25. The EFF government will use professional services companies that are 100% owned by South Africans and 50% owned by women and youth.

- AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY

AGRICULTURE:

1. The EFF government will strictly procure 100% locally produced food.

2. The EFF government will build and support fresh

3. produce markets in each municipality for access by small-scale food producers, with a minimum of 50% access by women and the youth.

4. The EFF government will lead a massive programme of food production by ensuring that all arable land in South Africa is placed under production.

5. The EFF government will immediately put a stop to the conversion of agricultural land into residential land and game farms by adopting a strict principle of ‘agricultural land only for agricultural production’.

6. The EFF government will build agricultural colleges to enhance and harness food production capacity at all levels.

7. The EFF government will establish and capitalise agricultural development nodes in each of the nine provinces to increase the quantity and quality of agricultural production in these areas and create a million agricultural jobs.

8. The EFF government will maximise agricultural productivity and massively invest in agro-processing in all nine provinces through the following initiatives:

- The EFF government will maximally build and support the cultivation and agro-processing of citrus products in the Mopani region; the cultivation and agro-processing of tomatoes in Mopani and the cultivation and agro-processing of avocados, bananas and other products in the Vhembe region of Limpopo Province.

- The EFF government will maximally build and support cattle farming and the agro-processing of the resultant products in the Amahlathi region; cultivation and agro-processing of maize in the Chris Hani region; tea in the OR Tambo region; cannabis for industrial and medical processing in the OR Tambo and Alfred Nzo regions of the Eastern Cape and aloe products in Amathole and OR Tambo.

- The EFF government will maximally build and support the cultivation and agro-processing of maize and cherries in the Thabo Mofutsanyane region in Free State Province.

- The EFF government will maximally build and support the cultivation and agro-processing of dry beans, maize and soybeans in Gauteng Province.

- The EFF government will maximally build and support the cultivation and agro-processing of potatoes and tomatoes in the Namaqualand and Pixley regions and grapes in the Siyanda ZF Macau region in Northern Cape Province.

- The EFF government will maximally build and support the cultivation and agro-processing of sugarcane in the eThekwini, iLembe and Zululand regions; maize in the uMzinyathi and uThukela regions; citrus and bananas in the uGu and uMkhanyakude regions; cattle-farming in the Amajuba, uThukela and Zululand regions and timber in the uMkhanyakude and Sisonke regions in KwaZulu-Natal Province.

- The EFF government will maximally build and support the cultivation and agro-processing of oranges, litchis, bananas, naartjies, avocadoes, macadamia nuts and mangoes in the Ehlanzeni region; mangoes and bananas in the Bohlabela region; peaches, plums and maize in the Nkangala region and timber and maize in the Gert Sibande region in Mpumalanga.

- The EFF government will maximally build and support the cultivation and agro-processing of sunflowers and maize in the Ngaka Modiri Molema region; cattle and poultry farming in the whole of North-West Province and cattle farming in Taung.

- The EFF government will maximally build and support the cultivation and agro-processing of grapes and onions in the Cape Winelands region; increase the production of wine, cattle and sheep livestock and grapes in the Central Karoo, West Coast and Overberg regions in Western Cape Province. The EFF government will also increase the production of potatoes, onions and animal products in the West Coast region and livestock production in the Overberg region of the Western Cape. This will also include abalone, especially in Hermanus - Western Cape.

9. The EFF government will ensure that young and emerging black farmers in all these agricultural development nodes are prioritised and receive technical and financial support, and that a minimum of 50% of them are women.

10. The EFF government will unbundle the constricted agricultural sector to reduce the monopoly of big businesses and ensure a more decentralised and vibrant agrarian regime.

11. The EFF government will actively promote the subdivision of agricultural land and will ensure that our new vision for agrarian reform is premised on the sound and viable principle of promoting smallholder agriculture.

12. The EFF government will, based on the agro-ecological conditions of each province, limit the amount of land that individuals and families have rights over.

13. The EFF government will re-introduce agricultural product marketing boards to ensure that farmers derive the most benefits from the sale of agricultural products while, at the same time, opening up market opportunities for emerging black farmers.

14. The EFF government will offer tax breaks to companies that invest in catalysing agricultural production in any of the identified agricultural development nodes, provided that such investment is based on strict principles of empowering local farmers to develop into independent farmers.

15. The EFF government will outlaw the monopolisation of the seed industry by a few companies and will allow the local production of seed for agricultural development.

16. The EFF government will outlaw the use of genetically modified seed in South Africa until the health hazards of these genetically modified seeds are fully understood.

17. The EFF government will protect and subsidise local agricultural production and marketing and will ensure that the country does not import what can be produced locally.

18. The EFF government will revitalise and rehabilitate the dying poultry industry by strictly regulating the importation of cheap and unhealthy poultry products from the USA and Brazil, which has led to the collapse of the local poultry industry.

19. The EFF government will regulate the importation of dairy products and ensure that local dairy production is capitalised, supported and protected.

20. The EFF government will introduce a law that compels state institutions such as prisons, hospitals and schools to procure their food needs from small and emerging farmers.

21. The EFF government will construct and maintain central abattoirs in every municipality to give access to the market on a durable and sustainable basis to producers of chicken, cattle, sheep, pig and sheep meat products.

22. The EFF government will provide seeds, chemicals, implements, irrigation and water schemes to communities.

23. The EFF government will use tariff measures to protect the forestry industry.

FISHERIES:

24. The EFF government’s approach to the fishing industry will be guided by the principle that marine resources are public resources and the exploitation of these resources should benefit the public as a whole.

25. The EFF government will ensure the widescale transformation of the fishing industry by allocating fishing rights and licences to small-scale and emerging black fishing companies.

26. The EFF government will provide technical and market- related support and subsidies to fishing communities to guarantee that they transition from subsistence to commercial fishing.

27. The EFF government will intensify the development of black participants in the fishing industry in the following areas; West Coast (Western Cape), North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal - particularly the area around Kosi Bay, Margate on the South Coast, Jeffreys Bay and Bluewater Bay in the Eastern Cape.

28. The EFF government will establish state-supported and black-run aquaculture plants in each of the nine provinces to promote the local production of fishery requirements.

29. The EFF government will ensure the local beneficiation of marine resources by constructing processing plants in all the coastal provinces and promoting the creation of jobs in fishing communities.

30. The EFF government will regulate the management of protected marine areas such that local communities are not deprived of their means of livelihood. To this end, the EFF government will pay specific attention to areas such as; Dwesa and Cwebe in the Eastern Cape, to allow for the sustainable exploitation of marine resources to provide for people’s livelihoods.

31. The EFF government will prioritise the regulation of deep-sea trawling to minimise the destruction of marine life by injudicious fishing companies and ensure the long-term sustainability of our marine resources.

32. The EFF government will legislate against the exploitation of endangered fish species and will outlaw commercial sales of these endangered species.

FORESTRY:

33. The EFF government will recapitalise and reposition the South African Forestry Company (SAFCOL), a state company, as the prime forestry company in South Africa, leading the transformation objectives of the state in this sector.

34. The EFF government will give SAFCOL overall control of all state forests currently leased out to private companies, allowing SAFCOL to renegotiate the terms and conditions of the lease agreements to prioritise the flow of benefits to communities in and around these forests.

35. The EFF government will establish forestry development nodes in the five forestry provinces of the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, which will focus on ensuring community ownership and control of forests and the processing and production of community-owned forestry products by timber-processing plants, furniture and paper producing factories.

36. The EFF government will ensure that these community enterprises are developed fully into major industrial players that employ thousands of people.

37. The EFF government will take over full control of the Zingcuka forests from the Amathole Forestry Company and will ensure the socialisation of this forest by the land claimant communities in and around this forest.

38. The EFF government will guarantee community ownership of the Langeni Sawmill and Matiwane Forest in Mthatha and will capitalise this forestry enterprise to ensure it expands its employment footprint.

39. The EFF government will ensure that ownership of the state-owned forests in Hazyview and White River that are currently leased to MTO Forestry (Pty) Ltd are restored to the people and that MTO’s continued operation in the area is premised on maximum community participation and benefit.

- ECONOMY

1. The EFF government will strive for South Africa’s economic sovereignty premised on inward industrialisation with export capacity, the protection and promotion of the labour-absorptive manufacturing sectors and the provision of quality jobs to all people who need employment.

2. The EFF government will strive for a South African economic outlook where the state owns strategic sectors of the economy, and where the ownership and control of the non-state-owned sectors reflects the demographics of South Africa.

3. The EFF government will de-commodify basic needs such as education and health so that such services are driven by the needs of the people and not by profit maximisation.

4. The EFF government will amend the legislation that governs the stock markets to introduce a minimum number of women, youth and workers as owners and beneficiaries of all listed companies.

5. The EFF government will introduce laws that compel huge corporations to directly contribute to the construction of schools, hospitals and other important social development projects and programmes.

6. The EFF government will drive for regional and continental economic integration in a manner that will qualitatively and quantitatively expand economic activities and intra-trade in South Africa, the SADC and the African continent.

7. The EFF government will use state and state entity procurement to stimulate local productive economic expansion and development.

8. The EFF government will deliberately pursue a strategy of economic decentralisation by promoting, protecting and supporting industrial activities, particularly manufacturing activities, in areas that currently do not have significant industrial and manufacturing capacity and activities.

9. Under the EFF government, the economy will grow at 6% in the first two years and 10% in the remaining three years. To achieve this growth, the EFF government will take the following key steps:

- Stabilise energy supply, particularly electricity supply, through the qualitative and quantitative expansion of Eskom’s capacity to provide environmentally friendly electricity from coal, nuclear and renewable sources.

- Stabilise water supply through the construction of dams, water treatment plants and massive investment in the conversion of seawater into usable water for industrial and household usage.

- Bring maximum stability to all state-owned companies.

- Introduce legislation compelling all asset managers to place a minimum of 30% of their investments in the productive economy and not speculative markets.

- Enforce the investment of a minimum of 40% of all state-guaranteed pension funds, including those of local municipalities and state-owned entities, in the productive economy and infrastructure.

- Compel development financial institutions (DFIs) to finance, incubate and promote a minimum of 30 000 SMMEs with less stringent requirements and joint accounts. This will be supported through the increased allocation of funds to DFIs.

- Enforce the domestic beneficiation of a minimum of 50% of natural resources extracted in South Africa.

- Pursue gradual import substitution through the creation and support of domestically owned retail outlets and spaces.

- Create multiple state-owned banks in various sectors.

- Declare tax-free zones for industries on condition that each company employs 2 000 workers on a full- time basis, pays minimum wages and contributes to workers’ pensions.

- Protect infant industries.

- Protect and promote informal traders.

- Expand the ocean economy, particularly transforming marine manufacturing and transportation, gas and oil exploration, and aquaculture.

- Build a new railway system to support industrialisation.

- Expand SOEs to provide services to other African countries.

- JUSTICE SYSTEM AND CORRECTIONAL SERVICES

1. The EFF government will massively expand the capacity of Chapter 9 institutions that provide assistance to the people particularly the; Office of the Public Protector of South Africa, Human Rights Commission and Gender Commission.

2. The EFF government will provide ordinary people with access to quality legal representatives to represent them in civil and criminal cases to ensure that their rights are protected.

3. The EFF government will ensure that the correctional services system is corrective rather than punitive. The levels of re-arrests in South Africa are disproportionately high because the country’s correctional services system is not corrective.

4. The correctional services system will be transformed to include compulsory education and skilling for all prisoners. This will be followed by the scrapping of the criminal record statuses of ex-convicts who were convicted of certain schedules of crime, depending on the seriousness of the crimes committed.

5. The EFF government will ensure that there is substance to rehabilitation programmes with the intention to properly re-integrate ex-offenders as productive, useful and law-abiding citizens.

6. The EFF government will ensure that no correctional services facility or programme is run by a private corporation or company.

7. The EFF government will ensure equality before the law, regardless of class, gender or race.

8. The EFF government will prioritise rehabilitation, correctional behaviour and counselling programmes as the fundamental programmes run by correctional services, complemented by skills development and academic training.

9. The EFF government will strengthen state capacity and spearhead the training of all civil servants in matters pertaining to basic statutory laws.

10. The EFF government will establish economic justice courts to adjudicate civil matters involving both individuals and corporations, so as to, achieve maximum justice for those who have been unlawfully mistreated and exploited by corporations.

11. The EFF government will criminalise the use of state agencies to victimise, harass or kill members of the population, whether privately or publicly.

12. The EFF government will protect the right to strike or organise marches.

13. The EFF government will incorporate a functional and effective juvenile and sexual offences arm into the legal system.

14. The EFF government will abolish the bail system in cases where the offence is a minor infraction.

15. Under the EFF government, minor offenses will not attract a criminal record.

16. The EFF government will establish separate budgets for all Chapter 9 institutions such as the Office of the Public Protector, South African Human Rights Commission, Commission for Gender Equality, Auditor General, Electoral Commission, Public Service Commission, Financial and Fiscal Commission, Pan South African Language Board, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, and Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities to ensure their independence and proper executive oversight.

17. The EFF government will double the number of sexual offences courts by 2024.

18. The EFF government will require each law faculty at institutions of higher learning to introduce a course, by 2020, on how legal professionals should conduct themselves in court cases in order to protect the short- and long-term mental and physical health of victims.

19. The EFF government will develop an online database of all sexual predators, along with their relatives, which any member of the public would be able to access at any time, by 2020.

20. The EFF government will legalise the use of marijuana by the end of 2019.

21. The EFF government will legalise sex work by the end of 2019.

22. The EFF government will introduce community courts for minor and petty crimes, excluding any crime that is of a sexual nature or involves a child, by 2020.

23. The EFF government will appoint additional new warders at correctional services facilities as follows; 1 000 in the Eastern Cape, 700 in the Free State, 1 500 in Gauteng, 1 200 in KwaZulu-Natal, 500 in Limpopo, 600 in Mpumalanga, 700 in North West, 600 in the Northern Cape and 1 000 in the Western Cape.

24. The EFF government will increase the capacity of correctional services facilities to accommodate 43 000 people, so as to reduce over-population by 2021.

25. The EFF government will introduce measures to strengthen the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) to ensure the adequate and speedy filling up of judicial vacancies, the training of judges and the qualitative transformation of the judiciary beyond numbers and demographics. New measures will include the retirement regime of judges and the role of retired judges in the provision of judicial training and development.

26. The EFF government will introduce legislative measures to ensure the measurable transformation of the legal profession by imposing strictly monitored and enforced targets for briefing patterns of the historically disadvantaged, women and black practitioners.

27. The EFF government will give legal briefs to legal practitioners reflective of South Africa’s demographics, with the emphasis on women and the youth.

28. The EFF government will consistently consult with progressive voluntary associations in the legal sector.

29. The EFF government will enhance and harness ordinary people’s access to quality legal representatives for civil and criminal cases to ensure that there is universal access to justice and courts.

30. The EFF government will pardon all ‘fees must fall’ students and political prisoners.

CONSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE AND DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION:

1. The EFF government will table the following constitutional amendments:

2. Introducing measures to strengthen the power and independence of the judiciary and the legislature;

- Changing the constitutional structure, including the abolition of the provincial sphere of government, accompanied by a mass restructuring and strengthening of local government spheres into a unitary state,

- Reducing the frequency and cost of elections by holding national and local government elections at the same time to enhance political stability and accountability,

- Introducing provisions specifically aimed at the protection of vulnerable groups, especially women, children, people with disabilities and the LGBTQI community,

- Introducing a progressive reduction of the voting age to 16 with immediate effect to expand youth participation in democracy,

- The abolition of registration fees for new political parties and further regulation of political party funding to reduce dependency on corporate manipulation,

- Increasing the alcohol intake age to 21 years and the further regulation of the liquor industry and anyone who sells alcohol,

- Introducing measures to enhance democratic and public participation between elections in the workplace, academic institutions, sporting and other voluntary associations and across society in general,

- Clarifying and elaborating on the role of traditional leaders in respect of rural development and dispensing indigenous forms of justice, and

- The repeal of all apartheid laws.

ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE

1. The EFF government will rapidly increase the protected area network to ensure that all representative ecosystems unique to South Africa are preserved and protected.

2. The EFF government will integrate local community forums in the management of protected areas to ensure that local people are not excluded from the management of protected areas in their localities.

3. The EFF government will promote local participation in initiatives to protect endangered and iconic species such as rhinos. People living in and around protected areas will be empowered and employed as the first line of defence against marauding poachers.

4. The EFF government will streamline environmental authorisation procedures to ensure that the Department of Environmental Affairs becomes the only authority that is able to grant authorisation for mining, property development and other forms of development.

5. The EFF government will, through strengthened legislation, ensure that mining companies that have abandoned mines are forced to come back and rehabilitate denuded mining landscapes.

6. The EFF government will improve the monitoring capacity of the state to ensure that there is zero acid mine water drainage.

7. The EFF government will officially adopt the civil society-driven ‘one million climate jobs’ initiative as a government programme. Through this initiative, the EFF government will create one million jobs aimed at transitioning South Africa from coal-based energy sources to renewable energy.

8. The EFF government will build a new recycling plant in each municipality by 2023.

9. The EFF government will phase out the use of plastic bags, so that by 2024 they are no longer being distributed.

10. The EFF government will require all mining companies to pay for the rehabilitation of mines that they have abandoned and for the draining of acid water.

11. The EFF government will reduce carbon emissions by 10% by 2024.

12. The EFF government will reduce the levels of pollution in all South Africa’s rivers by 60% by 2024.

13. The EFF government will require all children to clean their school and the school grounds once a week.

14. The EFF government will require all citizens to clean up their community once a month.

15. The EFF government will increase the allocation of fishing quotas to small-scale fishermen and decrease the allocation of fishing quotas to multinational corporations.

16. The EFF government will nationalise all game reserves, particularly the game reserves in Waterberg and uMkhanyakude, and bring them under the management of South African National Parks (SANParks).

17. The EFF government will collaborate with African governments to drive the Green Revolution across the continent, underpinned by agriculture, good production and environmental protection

18. The EFF government will progressively introduce carbon taxes as one additional tool in the fight for sustainable development.

FISCAL FRAMEWORK

1. The EFF government will maximally collect taxes with the aim of a 20% increase in current annual tax collections.

2. The EFF government will reduce the state debt to under 20% of the GDP.

3. The EFF government will equitably distribute nationally raised revenue in the ratio of 40% nationally and 60% locally.

4. Under the EFF government, a minimum of 50% of funds allocated to local government must be used solely to deliver services.

5. The EFF government will use a build, operate and transfer funding mechanism for infrastructure development.

6. The EFF government will increase capital gains tax and inheritance tax so as to ease the tax burden of the poor and transfer it to the rich.

7. The EFF government, including state-owned companies, will abolish tenders and insource all security guards, cleaners, gardeners, drivers and general workers.

8. The EFF government, including all state-owned companies, will disallow the use of consultants and directly employ people with capacity.

9. The EFF government will discontinue housing subsidies for ministers.

10. The EFF government will discontinue the appointment of deputy ministers.

11. The EFF government will move the Parliament to Pretoria.

12. The EFF government, including all state-owned entities, will discontinue the rental of buildings.

Instead, it will occupy government-owned buildings built by a state-owned construction company.

13. The EFF government, including all state-owned entities, will use Telkom services for all information and technology related services.

14. The EFF government, including state-owned entities, will use the services of state-owned banks.

15. The EFF government will remove all presidential and ministerial spousal support.

16. The EFF government, including all state-owned companies, will buy all goods directly from manufacturers at a discounted price to leverage economies of scale.

17. The EFF government will build government-owned storage facilities to store non-perishable goods.

18. A state-owned mining company will start operating at all coal mines owned by Eskom and will export surplus coal to generate revenue for the fiscus.

19. The EFF government will nationalise all mines and allocate key shares in South Africa’s mineral and petroleum resources to the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

20. The EFF government will increase corporate income tax from 28% to 32%, with a 25% dividend tax, in 2020.

21. The EFF government will increase capital and inheritance gains tax.

22. The EFF government will introduce education and training taxes on all private companies at a minimum of 2% of total revenue for companies with a turnover of R50 million and more, to be used to fund fee-free quality education.

23. The EFF government will increase taxes on speculative capital inflows to 60%.

24. The EFF government will raise an additional R100 billion annually through curbing illicit financial flows, including the expropriation of multinational companies which participate in tax avoidance and institute a stronger penalty regime with jail sentences for directors and executives.

25. The EFF government will pass an Anti-Avoidance of Tax Act to illegalise all forms of tax avoidance and will ensure that all those found to be engaged in tax avoidance and tax base erosion are imprisoned.

26. The EFF will establish a multi-disciplinary cross-agency task team, independent from the South African Revenue Services (SARS) and National Treasury, which will include officials from the National Treasury, Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and SARS, to gather and publish reliable statistical data on illicit financial flows.

27. The EFF government will launch a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into illicit financial flows since 1990, headed by a Constitutional Court Judge, by 2020. The Commission will include local and international experts on illicit financial flows and it will make specific recommendations in respect of past and future transgressions, prevention, detection and the imposition of suitable punitive and restorative measures.

28. The EFF government will adopt a long-term infrastructure financing model.

29. The EFF government will combine all Municipalities’ Pension Funds into one Municipal Employees Pension Fund (MEPF), with an investment mandate that focuses on Municipal Infrastructure Development.

30. The EFF government will reduce the cabinet to half of its current size and proscribe the positions of deputy ministers.

31. The EFF government will reduce VAT to 14%.

32. The EFF government will highlight employment targeting as the primary measure of fiscal.

The fourth and final section of the manifesto can be read here.