DA leader John Steenhuisen has called on struggling South Africans blighted by the rising cost of living, stubborn unemployment, power cuts, violent crime and poor service delivery to remain hopeful, saying help is on the way as the party promises a legislative reform agenda it says is the most comprehensive in a generation.
He made the remarks during an event to outline the official opposition party’s blueprint to rescue SA after the 2024 national and provincial elections to be held later this year, at Sandton, Johannesburg, on Tuesday.
During its first 100 days in national government, should it get the nod from voters, the DA plans to implement a comprehensive legislative reform agenda focused on fixing parliament to turn it into the engine room of reform and to give it more teeth to hold the executive accountable. Other measures include ending load-shedding by embracing privatisation; abolishing cadre deployment in favour of merit-based appointments; halving the rate of violent crime, including murder, attempted murder and gender-based violence; and growing the economy “while protecting social grants”.
Steenhuisen criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa for his recent remarks on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, which funds about 1.3-million students a year, and that social grants might be scrapped should the ANC lose power in the election. Steenhuisen said the money belonged to the people not the ANC.
There are 16.7-million employed people in the country, but at 31.9%, the unemployment rate remains among the highest in the world, with 28-million people dependent on social grants for their livelihoods.
The DA, together with its coalition partners under the multiparty charter for SA, said it would implement a reform agenda to solve a litany of socioeconomic crises that have resulted in low growth, entrenched poverty, an acute energy crisis, crumbling infrastructure, systemic corruption, widening inequality and a rising cost of living.
The governing ANC’s electoral support is expected to fall below 50%, according to several polls, including one by the ANC itself.
In the 2014 national election, the ANC received 11.4-million (62.1%) votes, followed by the DA with 4-million (22.2%) votes and EFF 1.1-million (6.3%). In the 2019 election, the ANC mustered 10-million (57.5%) votes, the DA 3.6-million (20.77%) and the EFF 1.8-million (10.8%).
Under the ANC, which has been in power for almost three decades, SA has been dogged by persistent power cuts, systemic corruption, deepening poverty and inequality, maladministration, low economic growth, poor service delivery and deteriorating infrastructure.
Steenhuisen slammed Ramaphosa, saying the president had long since chosen cadres over SA in refusing to go against the deputy president he appointed, “despite alarming evidence of systemic corruption and capture perpetrated by Paul Mashatile”.
Mashatile came under much scrutiny after a series of reports by News24 that he lives a life of luxury funded by individuals who have benefited from state tenders.
On the energy crisis, Steenhuisen said within 100 days the party — which is expected to launch its election manifesto at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on February 17 — would table legislation to rapidly increase private electricity generation and transmission.
The DA will push for the introduction of an expanded R75,000 tax rebate to further encourage private households to install solar energy, he said.
“Finally, within 100 days, the DA will start preparations to introduce a new budget. Frankly, we might as well ignore what the president says at Sona [state of the nation address], and the budget that the current finance minister delivers later this month. We all know that they are going to make desperate populist promises that the government cannot afford to keep.”
The DA leader said his party will bury the ANC’s “job-killing policies that come straight out of the socialist playbook, including expropriation without compensation, the nationalisation of mines, farms, industry and the Reserve Bank, as well as the madness of the NHI [National Health Insurance]”.
“On the NHI, I want to take a moment to applaud Business Unity South Africa and Business for SA for the principled stand they have taken against the NHI. The DA fully supports the call by business leaders for Ramaphosa not to sign the unconstitutional NHI Bill, and to instead refer it back to parliament. The process that led to this bill completely ignored public input and the bill itself is riddled with unconstitutional clauses.”
SA’s next government, said Steenhuisen, would either be “a coalition of corruption with the ANC and EFF at its heart, which will seal this country’s fate, or it will be a multiparty charter government with the DA at its heart, which will implement the most comprehensive legislative reform agenda seen in a generation. When you strip away the noise, those are the stakes in 2024.”
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