If you live in SA and are not part of the politically connected elite, life is harder than it was 17 years ago. The numbers don’t lie — SA is poorer in real terms. GDP per capita has declined 8%-10% since 2008.
Not only are we poorer, but fewer jobs are available, electricity is unaffordable, our infrastructure is collapsing, our municipalities are failing to deliver services, and we live in constant fear of violent criminals.
Some may assume this is the result of international or regional wars, trade tariffs and global food insecurity. However, the biggest cause is the ANC’s destructive policies. The policies have actively repelled investment, strangled growth and crushed the hopes of many unemployed South Africans who are likely never to find jobs.
Broad-based BEE has become a tool for enriching the politically connected few, while deterring multinational firms from entering our market. According to the latest Ipsos polling, less than half of the SA population believe BEE should keep going.
In addition, the Expropriation Act has undermined property rights and rigid labour laws have delivered one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. More than 43% of South Africans are unemployed or have given up looking for work.
Our freight rail volumes have collapsed. Our energy grid teeters on the brink, municipalities are failing and investors are fleeing en masse.
Yet while South Africans are crying out for action, we are instead offered distraction. The so-called national dialogue is collapsing under the weight of its own irrelevance. Even former president Thabo Mbeki’s foundation has withdrawn.
Those who have distanced themselves have echoed what we have always maintained: the national dialogue process is not citizen led. Instead, it is just another overpriced talk shop (costing a shocking R700m).
In just more than a year in national government DA ministers have already delivered much-needed action. From improving water infrastructure to expanding digital access, modernising public works and strengthening public finances, DA-led departments are laying the foundation for a more prosperous economy. Our economic plan builds on that progress and paves a superhighway towards growth and prosperity. These are facts.
However, we do not hold the main levers within the government of national unity (GNU) to implement the bold economic reforms needed to get our country back on the path to growth, and despite our repeated calls to the ANC to introduce a bold reform package this has largely fallen on deaf ears.
That is why the DA launched its plan to turbocharge the SA economy. It is an urgent, actionable and evidence-based plan: the shot in the arm our country needs. We need to remove the roadblocks to growth and jobs and build superhighways to prosperity for all South Africans. Our campaign rests on six bold interventions:
- Removing job-killing policies and laws. SA is one of the world’s most restrictive economies when it comes to the ease and cost of doing business. This strangles entrepreneurship, limits small business growth and deters foreign investment. Our plan will slash red tape, simplify licensing and replace race-based empowerment laws with the DA’s nonracial economic empowerment model, which focuses on the drivers of inequality of opportunity that affect most South Africans — who happen to be black. Doing so will create a genuinely inclusive economy based on need, not race. We will also exempt small businesses from rigid collective bargaining agreements so they can expand and hire more easily.
- Ensure affordable and reliable energy to power the economy. Our energy market remains a state-run monopoly with unaffordable prices and a fragile supply. Our plan will accelerate the horizontal unbundling of Eskom to open the generation market to private players, introduce real competition and drive down prices. We will diversify our energy mix, ramp up renewables, ring-fence municipal electricity revenue for reinvestment into infrastructure, and break Eskom’s stranglehold once and for all.
- Save our network industries from collapse. SA’s railways, ports and digital infrastructure are collapsing under ANC mismanagement. Transnet alone is costing the economy R1bn daily in lost opportunities. The DA calls on government to fast-track the concessioning of rail and port infrastructure to capable private operators. We will also expand broadband access, reduce mobile data costs and overhaul digital procurement rules to attract international investment and drive growth in rural and urban communities alike.
- Spend for growth, not patronage. Public spending must shift from bailouts and bloated wage bills to productive investment. The DA will end bailouts for failed state-owned entities (SOEs), trim excessive public sector pay and reallocate spending towards infrastructure, safety and front-line services such as education, healthcare and policing. Our plan includes a complete overhaul of the procurement regime to prioritise value for money and eliminate waste and corruption.
- From dysfunctional to delivering municipalities. Most non-DA governed municipalities are failing to deliver even the most basic services. The DA’s plan will professionalise local administrations and devolve more powers to capable municipalities. Crucially, coalitions must be stabilised by setting electoral seat thresholds and reducing the frequency of motions of no confidence without valid reasons, thereby preventing the revolving door of mayors we have witnessed in cities such as Johannesburg. Where the DA governs (like Cape Town, Midvaal and uMngeni) services are delivered, infrastructure is maintained, investment follows and jobs are created.
- Arresting the crime pandemic. Crime is economic sabotage. The DA will professionalise the police, crack down on organised crime and decentralise policing to capable provinces and municipalities. Safe communities are a precondition for economic opportunity. If people feel safe, businesses will invest and jobs will follow.
Thirty years of singular ANC rule have shown that the party cannot reform. Its alliance with trade unions locks South Africans out of economic opportunity. Its dependency on BEE patronage networks blocks inclusive empowerment. Its ideological obsession with state control stops it from opening up our energy and transport sectors to the private sector. Ultimately, the ANC’s version of “transformation” has become a racket to benefit the connected few at the expense of the many.
Our lack of significant GDP growth (it will average just 1% this year) is a direct consequence of 30 years of failed ANC policies. The ANC’s failure is not solely political; it is economic, social and moral. We must act now to attract investment, expand our economy and create opportunities for our people, especially our youth.
The DA’s plan is not a manifesto for some day. It is a blueprint for immediate action. It can be implemented now. Where we can, we are already delivering much-needed change, but if South Africans want to see improved economic growth and job creation, they must strengthen the DA’s hand so we can do more. A stronger DA, running more national departments, will improve SA’s outlook for future economic growth and job creation.
SA is standing at a crossroads. Down one path lies more decline, more dialogue, more talk shops. Down the other lies growth, jobs, and renewed hope. Let us take the path that leads to prosperity. The DA’s plan to turbocharge the economy is the shot in the arm SA needs.
• Steenhuisen, an MP and GNU cabinet minister, is DA leader.
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