UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE YOUTH

Unemployment continues to be high, with as much as 40% of South Africa’s workforce out of work. 

 

Half of the officially unemployed are women and more than 70% are under the age of 34. This youth bulge is a ticking time bomb for South Africa and the PA wishes to put in place every practical measure to absorb the youth, among our country’s most energetic and resourceful people, into the workforce.

 

There are no simple solutions to this problem, but the PA supports the principle of pushing for the further industrialisation of the country, tied to training targets that address the very real skills gaps that exist.

 

South Africa has an extreme and persistent high unemployment rate, which interacts with other economic and social problems such as inadequate education, poor health outcomes and crime. In the second quarter of 2010, the jobless rate increased to 25.3%, and the number of people with work fell by 61 000 to 12.7 million. The biggest decline in employment was recorded in the manufacturing industry, which shed 53 000 workers. Agriculture lost 32 000 jobs and employment in the construction industry fell by 15 000. In the third quarter of 2010, 29.80% of blacks were officially unemployed, compared with 22.30% of coloureds, 8.60 of Asians and 5.10% of whites. This negative trend must be arrested.

 

The PA supports policy programmes that have the interests of the poor and marginalised community at heart. The PA will support any viable youth programmes that will develop and introduce skills programmes for children. 

 

 

CULTURE AND HERITAGE

 

The PA will support policies that contribute to our rich heritage culture and will financially assist our diverse heritage culture groups such as the Malay and Coon’s Carnivals (commonly known as the Kaapse-Klopse), along with a wide range of rich and diverse cultural groups that contribute to the melting pot that is South Africa. 

 

The PA undertakes to fund and preserve cultural heritage events, the details of which will be expanded upon in further versions of this manifesto.

 

 

PRISONERS AND REHABILITATION

The PA wants to look at the principles of natural justice in terms of the human rights of prisoners and ex-prisoners.

 

The PA will re-examine the conditions of our prisons and will support programmes for prisoners in order for them to reclaim their place in society after serving their prison sentences or terms.

 

The PA will look at support programmes for inmates and their families who have a family member in jail or while a member is serving a jail sentence.

 

The PA will support policies for prisoners and ex-prisoners that will ensure former inmates re-integrate into society after serving their jail terms. 

 

The PA will seriously consider the possibility of an amnesty and perhaps cleaning or parking of certain categories of criminal record. For example, those who have refrained from being involved in gang-related activity or crimes could be eligible for having their records expunged completely after a decade. 

 

This will be a policy directive that will allow all active persons to re-enter the workforce. The whole purpose of this directive is aimed at combating crime, keeping people occupied and off the street and less dependent on the state. Crimes where research shows that people are likely to be repeat offenders over the course of their lives, such as child molestation and rape, will not qualify for such amnesties.

 

The PA proposes that awaiting trial prisoners must be separated from sentenced prisoners, in order to limit the negative transfer of prison attitudes and lifestyle, especially to younger inmates.

 

Prisoners themselves must be made to do work, such as being part of the process of building new prisons. The PA supports prison reform in various fundamental ways. More and better prisons need to be built as a matter of urgency.

 

Recidivism in prisons has much to do with the generally undignified conditions that our sentenced and awaiting trial prisoners must contend with. There are innumerable projects and tasks that would not take work from honest people looking for employment, and these are the tasks that prisoners must perform, both to pay for their crimes and to learn a skill and the culture of work generally.

4.3.10    Education programmes and other skills-training programmes must be expanded within prisons and more needs to be done post-incarceration to ensure that vulnerable ex-convicts do not become career criminals and fall into the life of violent crime. This is not to be seen as a reward for anyone going to prison and no programme that is open to released prisoners should not be open to a free citizen either.

 

 

MINING AND BENEFICIATION

The PA is proposing that a share of future mining income be used towards the empowerment strategies already outlined as a keystone policy.

 

Mining has been the main driving force behind the history and development of South Africa. Despite declines in the gold mining industry, South Africa is still one of the world's leading mining and mineral-processing countries. Mining’s contribution to the national GDP has fallen from 21% in 1970 to 6% in 2011 (and even less in 2013), it still represents almost 60% of exports. The mining sector accounts for up to 9% of value added.

 

The PA is opposed to wholesale nationalisation of any industry, including mining, but is interested in suggestions for policy that would make the state a bigger player in the industry, with more state-owned mines and larger capital flows from mining to the national treasury. This option would be used to bolster either the national tax base or the People’s Empowerment Partner outlined as a keystone policy.

 

The PA is also interested in proposals on how to make young South Africans take ownership of a larger share of mining ventures in the country. The PA will build on our strength as one of the world’s rich resource-based economies and create mechanisms that  will support initiatives and policies that will restructure the mining industry to bring on board the youth and women. In future, mining projects must be owned, to a large degree, by the youth in empowerment schemes that are not included in the umbrella of the PEP.

 

Mining companies have proven to be largely incapable of creating and running social and community-economic projects. Such projects need to be in place, but must be run by qualified government entities or NGOs. These will be funded by either taxes or directly by mining companies, depending on the nature of the work concerned.

 

The PA will be far stricter on regulations that require mining companies to clean up their waste and not leave the environmental disasters South Africa has inherited from mining activities in the past.

 

It is imperative that mining companies be seen to be doing business with the local communities in which they operate. The PA will be stricter on prescribing policies of procuring goods and services from local communities as well as hiring policies that benefit those living in close proximity to these mines.

 

South Africa must foster its mining, energy and resource sector and become globally competitive. In this regard, the PA should unleash the real economic potential in our mining industry by removing the shackles and burdens holding the industry back and by making the industry more productive and globally competitive. Any policy promoting this outcome would be welcomed.

 

The PA will enter the debate constructively on whether or not fracking should take place. If the country indeed has vast reserves of natural gas, this would help to transform the economy, but the PA would want future boom industries such as fracking to be a key industry to go towards establishing the broad empowerment tool, the PEP.

 

PRESS FREEDOM

The PA supports press freedom and shall promote exposing power abuse by any political structure. The PA would want the Secrecy Bill to be radically reformed.

 

THE ECONOMY AND JOB CREATION

The JSE is the largest stock exchange on the African continent. South Africa has a mixed economy, the largest in Africa. Despite this, South Africa is still burdened by a relatively high rate of poverty and unemployment, and is also ranked in the top 10 countries in the world for income inequality, measured by the Gini coefficient. Unlike most of the world’s poor countries, South Africa does not have a thriving informal economy. 

 

According to OECD estimates, only 15% of South African jobs are in the informal sector, compared with around half in Brazil and India and nearly three-quarters in Indonesia. The OECD attributes this difference to South Africa’s widespread welfare system. 

 

Other problems include state ownership and interference, which impose high barriers to entry in many areas. Restrictive labour regulations have contributed to the unemployment malaise. The PA will put policies in place that will allow the informal jobs sector to grow and absorb more people. The PA will encourage small, medium and micro-sized enterprises and will create funding mechanisms that will help and support small-business development.

 

South Africa has a comparative advantage in the production of agriculture, mining and manufacturing products relating to these sectors. But the high levels of unemployment and other linked issues such as crime, have hurt investment and growth, which has had a negative feedback effect on employment. Crime is considered a major or very severe constraint on investment by 30% of enterprises in South Africa.

 

Poverty remains a major obstacle to changing employment fortunes. According to 2002 estimates, 62% of South Africans living in poverty are Africans, 29% are coloureds, 11% are Indians/Asians and 4% are whites. 

 

The PA’s economic plan will transform the abovementioned challenges while keeping the realities of reasoned economic planning in mind. The PA undertakes that whatever economic decisions it makes will ultimately strengthen our fiscal policies to deliver a strong, prosperous economy based on the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

 

This plan will deliver and create more jobs, market-related real wages and better living standards for all South Africans, which includes the youth and vulnerable groups.

 

The PA believes in a strong, free, productive and prosperous economy, with less debt and with economic benefits for all.

 

A prosperous economy with less debt is the essential ingredient that allows us all to secure the aspirations we have for ourselves, our families and our country. The PA will create opportunities that will boost productivity to secure greater prosperity and build more 21st-century infrastructure. 

 

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

The PA accepts without question that societies become more stable, egalitarian and prosperous when women are empowered, young girls are properly educated, birth control is freely available and high infant mortality rates are lowered. These factors alone encourage women and their partners, if they have them, to plan families more carefully and responsibly and to raise children more equipped to handle the challenges of the modern world.

 

The PA therefore backs policies that promote the empowerment of women and will defend women’s rights to decide what happens to their bodies.

 

The rape of women is a vile pandemic in South Africa. The PA will be much harder on deterring rape through the justice system. Rape courts must be established with specialists who understand the sensitive nature of such crimes, and who get watertight results to prosecute offenders and thus raise deterrence.

 

The PA also hopes to create further opportunities for women in all industries and economic sectors of South Africa and hopes to restructure industries to enable women and their immediate families to get ahead and have a real chance in life to raise healthy, happy families and/or to focus on having strong careers.

 

FARMING 

The PA reiterates that policy issues of land restitution and agriculture are separate issues, though of course they are closely linked. 

 

Issues of land reform and restitution, for those affected by both the policies of the 1913 Land Act and apartheid and those displaced by colonial wars prior to this, can also be viewed as independent from agricultural production, which, while a small generator of revenue, is very important in terms of fighting hunger in the nation. The agricultural industry contributes around 10% of formal employment and provides work for casual labourers. The industry contributes only around 2.6% of GDP for the nation. Due to the aridity of the land, only 13.5% of land can be used for crop production, and only 3% is considered high-potential land.

 

The agricultural sector continues to face problems, with increased foreign competition and crime being two major challenges for the industry. Maize production, which contributes to a 36% majority of the gross value of South Africa’s field crops, has also experienced negative effects owing to climate change.

 

Competitive pressures from abroad, particularly from China and India, have played a role in the decline of exports for the food, textiles and paper sub-sectors, as firms in these sectors increasingly compete with lower cost producers. Increased exports from the beverages, tobacco, wood and leather sub-sectors over the period are due to the presence of large dominant firms within these sectors in South Africa that have managed to remain competitive.

 

However, in terms of political policy issues, currently in many areas of South Africa farm workers are still paid what amounts to little more than slave wages in some instances. On some farms, the illegal dop system is still used. The PA will be far more decisive in putting regulations and enforcing labour laws to counter this culture of exploitation. There is also a general culture of exploiting farm workers and the PA will investigate all the factors contributing to this, with the aim of constructively reforming it.

 

The PA will promote state ownership of farming land and create state-owned farms. Workers who are part of production on a state-owned farm will have a share in the profits of their farm and will thus be able to build up a family legacy, which is currently impossible, a situation that traps farm workers in an endless cycle of poverty.

 

As farming is such an essential component of the PA’s vision for taking South Africa from being a net importer of food to a net exporter, the state may choose to provide subsidies to state-partnered farms that engage in behaviour that promotes a more prosperous South Africa. Subsidising of farmers is, for example, common practice in the European Union. This will allow farmers to pay higher salaries to workers and could encourage them to grow the sorts of crops that are sustainable and which fit into the overall macroeconomic plan put in place year by year for the agricultural sector.

 

Skills transfer in farming is critical and the PA will reward white farmers when they show results in transferring skills to black or coloured farm owners.

 

The PA will consistently seek progressive reform of the agricultural sector.

 

POLICING AND CRIME

Crime in South Africa is a well-understood issue impacting severely on the quality of life in South Africa.

 

Police officers who excel in the line of duty can be rewarded, while those who do not should face appropriate censure. The PA accepts that a body of research has been conducted into how to minimise corruption in the police force and so a suggestion is that government not allow officers to patrol in areas where they themselves grew up and have families, as this exposes them to being influenced by gangs.

 

The PA will promote a culture of transparency within the police force, so that all police officers would have to be subjected to random integrity tests, such as those that are common in the New York Police Department, of such a nature that no officer will ever be able to know if and when they are being tested. (Note: under the PA, all workers in the civil service must be subjected to such tests across the board). This has proven to be part of the effective long-term strategy that is needed to build a service of police officers who are professional and uphold the law at all times.

 

Naturally, many challenges exist, including drug and alcohol abuse in the SAPS, gang affiliations, low morale and a culture of violence. 

 

The PA believes that, with an understanding of the situation and a scientific approach to solving it (as with all the problems in SA), it will be possible to fix the rot at the heart of the police service and welcomes policy suggestions on how this can be achieved most effectively. Currently, the SAPS is going out of its way to deny many of its flaws and shortcomings. A national commissioner who is not a political appointment and someone who actually understands the operations of combating crime, thanks to a lifetime of service to the police, will be a first priority for the PA. 

 

Ultimately, crime is an issue that resonates with every South African in some way and it can only be dealt with once the SAPS has been fixed. The current crime stats call for far more random searches to be performed in public spaces by police and for all citizens to be aware that in order to secure the peace and safety of all, supporting police in efforts to prevent crime instead of mopping up behind it will benefit everyone.

 

The PA will implement broad policy on how to improve safety and security and combat crime most effectively.

 

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

South Africa requires more, faster and cheaper internet access. The PA will support all infrastructural developments that allow more of our people to have access to this fundamental tool in this century.

 

Every person in South Africa must have access to the internet in some form and this needs to be treated as something as fundamental as housing, water and electricity.

 

TRADE UNIONS

The tragedy at Marikana is also very well known and is the result of the perceived need by our people to resort to violent strikes in order to be heard. Every effort must be made to reduce the violent nature of protests and well-formed unionisation is key to this.

 

There is a persistent wage differential between unionised and non-unionised workers in South Africa, suggesting that unions are keeping wages higher for their members, thereby posing additional challenges to the unemployment problem. The PA will investigate this and seek reforms.

 

Many analysts have written about how trade unions have protected individuals who perform poorly, especially in critical public sectors such as education and they consistently block measures to make salary adjustments that are linked to performance. The PA will ensure that unions do not have the power to protect inefficient members such as weak teachers and police members. Unions must be there to protect the rights of workers who are being discriminated against unfairly.

 

Trade unionism is an important part of the South African constitution and it plays a key role in protecting our democracy, but the practical outworking of trade unionism has not always benefited the growth of South Africa broadly. The main reason for this is the sometimes incestuous relationship between trade union leaders, the ruling party and business interests. The PA would propose that in future trade unions operate strictly independently without all the numerous conflicts of interest that currently exist.