STRAIGHT TALK
30 January 2024
On Wednesday, the eleven parties to the Multi-Party Charter gathered at the Durban Harbour to set out for the nation how a Charter government will grow South Africa’s economy and create jobs at scale. We chose to do this at Durban Harbour because, as with government itself, this port should be a powerful enabler of economic activity but is instead a severe bottleneck throttling it.
Our key message was that the Multi-Party Charter will seek to make South Africa’s economy as attractive as possible for investors and as easy as possible for businesses big and small to start, grow and thrive. We will treat entrepreneurs, investors and businesses from informal traders to conglomerates as valued partners, because we recognise that the only thing that creates sustainable jobs is private investment in productive enterprises, both big and small.
We set out some of the meaningful steps we will take to create the conditions necessary for economic activity to flourish (see below). Our approach is underpinned by a commitment to an open economy where far more economic decision-making power and agency rests with the people of South Africa rather than with government. This is the only way to unleash the immense untapped potential of the people and resources of South Africa, and therefore the only way to lift millions of people out of grinding poverty and into the dignity of a job.
The formation of the Multi-Party Charter has produced a realistic pathway to power for an alternative government whose approach marks a distinct departure from the patronage-driven, closed economy, centralized state control of the ANC. In the 2024 general election, voters now have a clear choice between The Charter’s job-creating approach and the ANC’s job-killing approach to the economy.
2024 is likely your only opportunity to save South Africa’s economy at the ballot box and you only have this power if you are registered to vote. If you haven’t yet done so, you can kickstart your registration process online at www.check.da.org.za. Or you can register at your nearest voting station this weekend 3-4 February by taking your ID book or card any time between 8am and 5pm. Please double your impact by persuading and assisting one unregistered voter to register to vote DA. Don’t miss this one chance to rescue South Africa’s economy and bend its trajectory towards prosperity for all.
Key steps the MPC will take to grow the economy and create jobs:
Defend property rights because nothing deters investment like the threat of expropriation.
Reduce fuel prices significantly by targeting the general fuel levy, reforming fuel taxes, and deregulating the sector. This is to reduce input costs for businesses and increase South Africa’s global competitiveness.
Ensure government expenditure on economic infrastructure returns value for money by allocating building and maintenance contracts on merit.
Ensure the independence of the South African Reserve Bank, to ensure a stable macroeconomic environment.
Ensure fiscal discipline by capping the debt-to-GDP ratio on an annual basis.
Make it easier for informal traders to operate, by eliminating regulations that are hostile to them and shifting the regulatory focus to the protection of consumer rights.
Introduce a broad range of regulatory exemptions for small, medium and micro enterprises for the first three years of operation, to improve their survival rate.
Raise the VAT threshold to R5 million turnover.
Exempt the small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMME) sector from all labour legislation other than the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA).
Grow the skills base of the workforce by recognizing and enabling apprenticeships, because apprenticeships are a powerful way for people with skills to transfer those skills to younger people without skills. They are also a powerful way to get young people out the gangs and off the streets, and into the dignity of work.
Grow the skills base by reforming the visa system to allow scarce skills to enter South Africa to replace skills lost locally to emigration.
Reintroduce technical training colleges and gazette Trade Test Training.
Improve the quality of basic education by appointing principals, teachers and administrators on merit and linking their remuneration to performance, by reintroducing teacher training colleges, and by establishing a Schools Inspectorate.
Yours sincerely
John Steenhuisen
