The DA’s Alternative Budget: how to restore confidence in South Africa

The DA’s Alternative Budget 2013 sets out how we would overhaul taxation and realign expenditure priorities, in line with our Plan for Growth and Jobs, to put South Africa on a path of job-creating growth.

This year our Alternative Budget shows how key policies can be implemented in support of 12 strategic focus areas of the National Development Plan.

It also responds directly to the major concerns of the credit rating agencies that led to South Africa’s recent downgrades by detailing a plan to:

Rebuild the institutional capacity of government to create an environment that is conducive to economic growth;

Begin to moderate increases in government debt by reigning in the budget deficit; and

Re-establish investor confidence in our country by showing that the government has a plan to boost economic growth and scale-up actual spending on infrastructure, which has fallen short of promised investment by around 22% for the past three years.

The DA believes that the best way to address these concerns is to support the NDP as a policy platform to underpin job-creating growth.

To this effect, key policy priorities in the DA’s Alternative Budget include:

Setting out to reduce government debt to levels close 35% of GDP in the long term by kicking off an aggressive process of fiscal consolidation. This priority is demonstrated in our commitment to running a budget deficit of 4.3% of GDP in 2013/14, an improvement on general projections of a deficit of between 4.5% and 4.7% for the upcoming year;

Recovering nearly R30bn in revenue by streamlining government and curbing public sector corruption;

Boosting the job-creating potential of small businesses through a proposed stimulus package including R9.4bn in tax cuts and R3.7bn in additional support programmes;

Fully implementing the Youth Wage Subsidy and additional investment of almost R3bn in programmes fostering job creation;

Rolling out new investments of R4.6bn in education and skills development, including R200m for an in-the-classroom training programme for teachers and funding for roving master teachers;

Appropriating more than R1bn to promote empowerment and capitalise poor South Africans;

Keeping South Africans safer with an additional R3.4bn to secure our communities;

Eliminating broken promises on infrastructure expenditure with interventions to increase actual investment on infrastructure to 10% of GDP.

If implemented, the ideas in the DA’s Alternative Budget would address the critical challenges facing the South African economy, help restore confidence in the economy, encourage investment, boost economic growth and reduce unemployment.

We are not a sick country – we’re a country of sick men

It's longer time to just talk. It’s time to act, urgently. It’s time to talk and do something about men – about how we make them, groom them and send them out into the world to rape and kill women.
For this is the silence at the heart of the violence and rape scandal of South Africa. It is men, singly and in groups, who do this.

It is men who are our sons, our brothers, our friends; we, who commit this most heinous of crimes.
The conversation must take place among men and, concomitantly, tough action needs to be taken against those who break the law.

During the past few weeks there has been a horrific display of what we have all become: a nation that daily maims, rapes and kills women.

The name Anene Booysen animated us, flickered a conscience that might have been dimmed, then other news came along and we moved on.

We must not move on. This problem will not go away.

It is unknown, except for speculation, what happened at the home of athletics hero Oscar Pistorius on the morning of St Valentine’s Day. One fact, though, is implacably true. A young man with a gun in his hand killed a young woman, Reeva Steenkamp.

That reminds us that there are too many men who visit violence upon women. It must stop, but the old methods and the old wringing of the hands is not enough. It is time to talk to the perpetrators: men.

What is it about our country that makes so many of us men believe that we have a right to a woman’s body to the extent that we violate these bodies in order to assert this sick right?
What is it about us that makes a group of men – as happened in the video- recorded gang-rape last year of a child – participate in this sick and disgusting act?
What is it that we have ingrained in our boys that not a single one of them, not one in any of these gang-rape incidents, stops and walks away?

Something is deeply broken in what we have inculcated in our men. In villages, townships, university campuses and elsewhere men witness, participate in or are aware of rape and rapists. Yet there is a code of silence, of acceptance, that is ingrained in all of us: no one snitches on these rapists, no one walks away, no one stops it and draws a line in the sand.

We are not a sick country; we are a country of sick men.

President Jacob Zuma, in his state of the nation speech, said absolutely nothing about the seriousness with which we ought to tackle the issue. He spoke mainly about the National Council on Gender- based Violence, established last year. This is a talk shop that has met only once.

Worse, though, the president seems to think service delivery protests are a greater scourge to our country than rape. He announced plans to establish a special rapid prosecution regime for protesters but cannot move himself to do the same in respect of the 60000 sexual assault cases a year.

Here is the thing. It is men who rape. It is men who protect and defend the men who rape. It is men who badger and bully and force women and abused children not to report the chief, priest, sangoma, uncle or other relative who has committed this crime.

The problem therefore lies with men. That is where our efforts should now be directed.
Over and above some serious legal action – strengthening the police’s domestic violence, child protection and sexual offences units, plus special rape courts with properly trained prosecutors – we need wholesale re-education of men.

In schools and communities, in universities, in churches and in workplaces, we need campaigns similar to those that we initiated to fight the scourge of HIV/Aids.

We cannot keep rape underground any longer. We need to declare a state of emergency.
That state of emergency must expose men to messages about rape and other gender-based violence and in such a way that there is a shift in our collective psyche.

South African men need mass re-education. If needs be, this should be legislated for: every man needs to attend several classes of sensitisation at a school, community hall, clinic or other such facility. Every man needs to go for a refresher course – just as we all go for re-testing for HIV and Aids – every two years.

It must happen until rape is no longer a pandemic in our country.

Otherwise we will all talk until the cows come home but we will have failed to deal with the problem.

The problem is us, men. We need to deal with it.

By Justice Malala, political commentator and journalist

SONA: What Zuma should have said

President Zuma has passed up an opportunity to present us with a bold new plan. Instead, all he gave us was an uninspired version of last year’s State of the Nation Address, which provides no hope for South Africans crying out for real leadership. All we heard was more of the same empty promises we have heard before. 

No one will suffer more from this than the millions of unemployed young South Africans, who were waiting for the President to announce the implementation of the Youth Wage Subsidy, but got nothing more than vague assurances.

He knows what key priorities need to be achieved, but provides no plan or details on how they will be achieved. This is the hallmark of a President who can only deliver vague promises, not of a President touted as a man of action.

Job creation and youth unemployment

The President failed to provide a clear message to the millions of unemployed young South Africans that he will prioritise job creation. He did not acknowledge the need to encourage job creation through rapid economic growth. Instead he cow-towed to COSATU and the ideals of the New Growth Path, which emphasise state intervention as a key driver to create jobs.

While President Zuma acknowledges the need for government departments to pay SMMEs within 30 days, something they should be doing anyways, he failed to announce any plans to remove the regulatory burdens that stifle the growth of so many small businesses.

President Zuma ‘appealed’ to the private sector to employ graduates, when he should have announced a clear deadline for the implementation of a youth wage subsidy, which would achieve this very outcome. 

There was no detail on his plan to fight youth unemployment, just a vague pledge to do so. The time for empty promises to young South Africans is over. He promised to do so three years ago – why has he not implemented the Youth Wage Subsidy yet?

This was an inexcusable omission, and will be remembered by the many thousands of unemployed youth as the symbol of his failed presidency. The message to young South Africans was clear today: political expediency trumps job creation and growth.

Crime

The DA welcomes the President’s strong condemnation of violence against women. We agree that there must be unity in action, and that it must be treated with urgency. However, he failed to provide a clear and concrete plan as to how government will improve the safety and security of all South Africans. There was no reference to training of police officers, no reference to increased resources to the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Units. Nor was their mention of increased specialised prosecutors or the reinstatement of Sexual Offences Courts. 

The reality is that it is the government which is failing to implement legislation such as the Domestic Violence Act, and the Sexual Offences Act. 

There is also no reference to increasing the number of public order police, and providing them with adequate training and resources, nor to the demilitarisation of the SAPS – as recommended in the National Development Plan.

Education

President Zuma has committed to making sure that teachers are in school, in class and on time in the last three SONAs. But he has provided no plan to achieve this. We welcome his review of teacher remuneration, but where is the link to performance? The National Development Plan makes clear reference to holding teachers accountable, but Mr Zuma failed to tell South Africans how he would do so. He has also backtracked on the proposal to make teaching an essential service by endorsing teachers’ unconditional right to strike. Once again, the rights of teachers to strike are trumping learners’ right to education. 

Fraud and corruption

The President announced a cracking down on fraud and corruption in infrastructure programmes, but announced no further plans to tackle this. Where is the review of the Ministerial Handbook? Why has the Public Service Integrity Framework not been tabled, as promised last year? Why will the Public Works report into the upgrade of his Nkandla home not be made public?

Most significantly, he made no clear pronouncement on appointing a permanent head to the National Prosecuting Authority or to the Special Investigating Unit. If he was truly committed to the fight against corruption, this would be his first priority.

Mining sector

President Zuma claims that he has brought certainty to the mining sector. This is not only blatantly misleading, but a telling indication of his complete denial of the crisis in the mining industry. The President’s failure to stand up to COSATU, the violence of the Marikana Tragedy, unrest across the industry and now tens of thousands of job losses prove that the President is wrong. His government should spend more time trying to address the fundamental challenges in the sector, and less time making damning statements about the private sector. His announcement that a study of tax policies will be commissioned to evaluate the current mining royalty regime will certainly not do anything to inspire confidence in investors.

Land reform

Instead of condemning the “willing buyer, willing seller” principle, he should have focused his attention on the proposals of his National Development Plan, which the DA supports. The NDP requires that attention be paid to utilising state land for reform, individual land tenure, and equitable share schemes. He failed to make such mention, nor has he made any reference to the complete disarray of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform. He has also failed to provide any clarity on progress with the audit of state-owned land, which is critical to ensure the transfer of land ownership to the thousands of South Africans who live on state-owned land, but have no ownership rights.

Gap housing

President Zuma stated that R126 million has been allocated to housing subsidies for the gap housing market. This is just half of what he spent on the upgrade of his own private home in Nkandla. If he was serious about addressing the human settlement backlogs, he would have provided a more detailed plan to do so.

So what is the conclusion? All in all, the President said nothing new, provided no vision or leadership and no details on concrete action to address the key concerns of South Africans.

Incremental improvements don’t hide the true state of affairs in SA Education

Our national strategy for improving literacy and numeracy has assisted in improving education quality,’ claimed the minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, on the release of the latest National Senior Certificate (NSC) results.

She may be right. Results of the Annual National Assessments show slight improvements in basic numeracy and literacy. The number and proportion of pupils passing the NSC is starting to rise. Enrolment at primary schools has been rising.

So why is everyone so up in arms about the state of education in South Africa (apart from, perhaps, the minister herself)? Because she is missing the point. By focusing on small improvements, she comes across as indifferent to, or ignorant of, the glaring and persistent inadequacies of the system. It is like admiring the shiny doorknob on a house that is crumbling.

The slight improvements mask the fact that only one in five NSC pupils taking maths and science manage to get above 50% — fewer than could five years ago. They hide the fact that the number of pupils taking maths and physical sciences has fallen by around 20% in the last six years. The incremental changes also ignore the fact that millions of children are dropping out of the system along the way, leaving them with no qualifications and little prospect of ever getting a job.

For those who do make it through to pass their NSC, two thirds do not pass well enough to study for a degree. Even those who do get into university are not necessarily coming out of school fully equipped. The University of Johannesburg, for example, will be spending R100m this year on bringing new students up to university level.

South Africa’s education system is ranked 140th out of 144 yet we spend more than 5% of GDP on it (a higher proportion than many other emerging markets). It is time for the minister to stop burying her head in the sand.

Goldfields CEO recalls a visit to Nkandla and "sinister smile" on Zuma's face

An email is doing the rounds purportedly written by former Gold Fields CEO Chris Thompson about a meeting with Jacob Zuma about Nkandla.

Noseweek reporter Mark Thomas tracked Thompson down to his home near Denver, Colorado, US. Yes, said Thompson, he wrote it. But he had intended it as a private communication to a friend, not for general publication. However, now that it had gone viral, “I may as well confirm that I wrote it – and that it’s a true account”.

“Now that it’s to be published, I hope it contributes to widespread efforts to expose and clean out the rot at the top in South Africa’s politics.”

So here’s what the former Gold Fields CEO said in his email to a friend on Saturday, 24 November, 2012:

“When I was CEO of Gold Fields [1999-2002] I got a call from [former President Nelson] Mandela saying we should build a school at Nkandla for Zuma – he was the vice-president at the time. GFL had a foundation, which I headed, and we built schools all over the country but only where there was real need. Nkandla already had a school so I told Madiba we would look into it. The conclusion was that it was marginal but it could be said to have need for a new and bigger school.

“When he called me again to repeat the request a couple of months later, I said I’d go down to Nkandla myself and meet Zuma. I flew down by chopper and Zuma flew in with an entourage, with three military choppers, and put on a big lunch etc for us. He then took us to see the existing school and meet the architects who had designed the proposed new school. It was pretty grand. In the course of discussion I asked what the cost would be and the architect, standing next to me (who absolutely stank of booze) grinned and said ‘R12 to R14 million’. I turned to our foundation chief and said that that was about three times what we usually spend and asked what should the cost be for the design we were looking at. The answer: ‘about R5 or R6 million’. So I looked at the architect and asked ‘Where does the rest of the money go?’ He looked across the table at Zuma and Zuma just looked at me with this big smile.

“So I flew back to Joburg and called Mandela. ‘Yes we will build a school in Nkandla but there are two conditions: 1) it will be a school that GFL designs and not Zuma’s design, and it will be built by our contractors reporting to us (It ended up costing about R4m). And, 2) we are listing GFL on the New York Stock Exchange in two months and we want you to come and ring the bell for Gold Fields at the launch’ [In New York on 9 May 2002 – Ed]. He agreed.

“The reason I asked for him was because Anglo Gold had brought a real live lion (drugged of course) on to the NYSE stage as a very successful publicity stunt, and as long-time rivals we wanted to upstage them.

“The effect of Mandela on the floor was electric. We got huge press around it and the stock went up nicely.”

The new Mnyakanya Secondary School, built by Gold Fields, was opened in March 2004.

Thompson concludes: “But I will never forget that smirk on Zuma’s face. The revelation about the highway and his house scam are all consistent with what we saw that day.”

Race-based politics is SA's Achilles heel

Last week I sat by hopelessly as ANC councillors took a clearly illegal decision based solely on race. No logic or reasoning was present, despite sincere attempts by some to convince them otherwise. All they saw was colour, and perhaps an opportunity for self enrichment. This led to me think once again about the issue of race based politics in South Africa, remembering the next National Elections is little more than a year away.

Due to our well publicised history the status quo has been to elect according to racial preference, however it is this very same way of deciding who is to take South Africa forward that has been our weakness for the past decade. What we have elected as according to the above mentioned criteria was a gang of hooligans and scavengers that sort to loot the country of its resources while they have the chance and hopefully be able to convince the country to follow the norm in electing leadership. We saw this become clearer since the 2009 National Election when Julius Malema openly canvassed for Jacob Zuma, famous for his flirtation with the corrupt, using race as a major playing card.

If we are to build a unified country we cannot keep forsaking a logical, value-based way of electing public office bearers and taking decisions. We should be asking our politicians “what are you bringing to the table” and not settling for the old rhetoric of “previously disadvantaged, more jobs and houses, economic freedom” etc etc etc...

An incumbent who is elected as according what value he can bring to the country can always be held accountable and to that effect can be removed if not performing as according to the agreed expectations of the nation, write that statement in your conscious and sub conscious mind and let it come forth the next time you cast your ballot. As the saying goes your vote is your voice, and as a voter it is your tool to change the political landscape of our land. Vote for value and not for race.