Do ‘Big Three’ policies converge?
The ANC, DA and EFF are not far apart on their plans for the poorest of the poor
Since the inception of South Africa’s democratic dispensation, the biggest challenge has been about bridging the gap between the haves and the have-nots. This is why the ANC of Nelson Mandela instituted the Reconstruction and Development Programme as part of the country’s socio-economic policy to address the inequality between black and white citizens.
This policy was run in tandem with the social grants system, which was meant to address the high poverty lines. These grants cover close to 60% of household expenditure for the poorest 20% of the population.
This has been a winning formula for the ANC. With the ANC having lost urban voters to parties such as the Democratic Alliance (DA), pundits have in the past predicted that it would regress into a rural party clinging to its social policies to help carry it over the red line.
With this in mind, the DA and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) — whose goal in this year’s elections is to bring the governing party’s voter share below 50% — have had to polish up their social policies to be more competitive with the Cyril Ramaphosa-led ANC.
For the most part, the “Big Three” parties’ contributions to the social agenda converge.
The ANC cramped its proposals in a 58-page election manifesto document, this time around with a focus on jobs. The EFF painstakingly detailed its proposal, crafting a 258-page document titled Our Land and Jobs Now. Stop Load Shedding, while, lastly, the blue party’s 53-page document speaks of a rescue plan.
Predictably, the ANC has not done much to develop its past social policy promises. Almost reading like a copy-and-paste version of its previous manifesto, the party is still unable to produce timeframes on when its basic income grant programme will take shape.
But the governing party does move the goal posts by promising, among other things, to progressively implement a basic income support grant by extending and improving the value and coverage of the social relief of distress grant introduced in response to the pandemic.
It also claims there will be national minimum wage increases in line with inflation and
to ensure compliance. One would imagine that its alliance partner, trade union federation Cosatu — which itself has been declining in membership partly over its tamed posture on ANC’S deliverables — will be watching to see if the governing party does fulfil this promise.
In the past, there have been rumblings of a political fallout between the two partners over the ANC government reneging on some of its wage agreements with civil servants. Cosatu has previously accused the government of conducting wage negotiations in bad faith by undermining collective bargaining.
Although the ANC can claim ownership in introducing social grants to the poorest of the poor and despite its intentions to extend this programme towards a basic income grant, the Red Berets go a step further by promising to substantially increase social grants payable to various categories of people.
What could possibly be attractive to the marginalised and poor, who make up most of the population of South Africa, is the EFF’S promise to double the grants with a sweetener to also introduce a grant for unemployed graduates.
With no clarity on how it would achieve these ambitious goals in a country whose economy
has been near collapse, the EFF also promises to do what the ANC has failed to properly implement — leverage technology to introduce other means of distributing social grants to reduce queues at pay points.
This could speak to a “Gogo Dlamini” who has languished in long queues and at times had to contend with the weak South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) systems. Last year alone, distributions almost broke down at in September because of a system glitch.
A month later, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu reported to parliament that Sassa had lost more than R50 million in two years to fraud and corruption within its ranks, News24 reported.
The EFF takes its social policy a step further, promising to build fee-free retirement villages and old age homes; provide land and seedlings to subsistence farmers and to subsidise fares on public transport for senior citizens.
The DA also proposed an increase in grants by adding an extra R250 to the child support grant, which is currently R510.
If implemented in the next financial year, the DA states that its policy proposal will require an additional R39.6 billion in funding each financial year for the 13.2 million recipients.
It also promises to extend the child grant to cover pregnant mothers and support child nutrition goals.
The DA proposed a targeted approach to protect people against food price shocks, as well as improved remuneration packages to make the social work profession more attractive.
While the ANC and the EFF have promised to deliver on basic income grants, the DA instead proposes that the social relief of distress grant be converted into a job-seekers grant.
“This would require recipients to seek work opportunities and provide evidence to the department of social development if they continue receiving the grant. The grant’s continuation will only remain viable if there is economic growth and sufficient tax revenue to fund it,” it said.
The DA said it opposes tax increases to fund this expenditure and will identify savings and spending efficiencies in the public service sector to accommodate it.