The Multiparty Charter, consisting of parties such as the DA, IFP, FF Plus, ActionSA, and others, has recently announced an economy and jobs recovery plan. If successful in the upcoming elections, the charter parties plan to implement this strategy to reduce unemployment and poverty and create conditions for economic growth and global competitiveness.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba presented the plan on behalf of the parties at Durban Harbor. Mashaba highlighted the mismanagement of the economy by the ANC, stating that it has led to an unproductive and uncompetitive economic environment.
Durban harbor, once a bustling hub of economic activity and the gateway for South Africa’s export products, now serves as a major bottleneck that is hindering the economy, along with the broken railways and education system.
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The Multiparty Charter believes that the ANC’s mismanagement is not only reflected in the high unemployment rate of 41.2% but also in the increasing cost of living that South African households are facing.
With these pressing issues in mind, the charter parties have come together to present a new economic direction for South Africa. The parties are committed to their shared principles and working in a new national governing coalition to grow the country’s economy and create jobs.
They recognize the bleak economic outlook of South Africa, marked by high unemployment, a constrained business environment, and decreased investor confidence. In response, the Multiparty Charter for South Africa has unveiled a plan to stabilize public finances, generate inclusive economic growth, and enhance the quality of the education system.
The plan takes a two-pronged approach. Firstly, it focuses on creating conditions that are conducive to economic growth. This includes addressing the infrastructure bottlenecks, such as improving the efficiency of Durban harbor and fixing the broken railways.
Additionally, the plan aims to create an environment that attracts investment and supports businesses, ultimately leading to job creation and economic expansion. Simultaneously, the plan emphasizes the importance of growing the skills base of the workforce.
Recognizing that a well-educated and skilled workforce is crucial for economic development, the Multiparty Charter aims to enhance the quality of the education system. This includes investing in education infrastructure, improving access to quality education, and promoting vocational training and skills development.
The Multiparty Charter’s economic recovery plan offers a comprehensive approach to address the challenges faced by South Africa’s economy. By focusing on both creating favorable conditions for economic growth and investing in human capital, the charter parties aim to stimulate job creation, reduce poverty, and enhance the country’s global competitiveness.
The charter’s shared principles on the economy are:
- The charter will unlock the full potential of investment by removing barriers and eliminating overly prohibitive limitations, driven by the necessity to position South Africa as a competitive market for innovation and investment. We will defend property rights and introduce additional legislative measures to protect land, capital, and intellectual property rights.
- The charter will seek to create competitive local manufacturing and productive capacity. To help South African businesses become more competitive, we will reduce fuel prices by specifically targeting the general fuel levy, reforming fuel taxes, and deregulating the sector.
- The charter will further enhance the efficiency and transparency of fiscal management to ensure value for money in government expenditure on economic infrastructure.
- The charter will establish fiscal discipline on government borrowing by capping the debt-to-GDP ratio annually through implementing a “fiscal rule”.
- The charter will ensure the independence of the Reserve Bank.
- The charter will unleash the full potential of the SMME sector by tapping into the informal sector and introducing a broad range of regulatory exemptions for SMMEs within their first three years of operation to improve the SMME survival rate. In addition, they will raise SMMEs’ VAT threshold to R5m turnover and exempt small businesses from all labor legislation other than the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.
- The Multiparty Charter will grow the skills base of the workforce through visa system reforms to allow scarce skills to enter South Africa to replace skills lost locally to emigration, recognize apprenticeships by reintroducing technical colleges and gazette trade test training that the TVET sector will perform — to strengthen the country’s workforce capacity and skills to respond to our economic needs.
- The charter recognizes that it must future-proof the workforce by aligning skills development mechanisms with current and future economic needs and enhancing the competitiveness and productivity of the labor force.
- The charter will improve the quality of education through the depoliticization of the education system, enhancing curriculum delivery and reintroducing fit-for-purpose performance management systems.
- The charter will improve teacher quality and further this effort by reintroducing teacher training colleges, implementing performance-linked remuneration, and establishing a school inspectorate to ensure the delivery of quality education.
- The charter commits to ensuring that no child is left behind by proactively identifying at-risk learners for additional support, capacitating public education systems with in-house counselors and educational psychologists, and guaranteeing that every child has transportation to get to school.
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