DA promises lean govt
Party opposed to political patronage
The DA believes a leaner government may lead to effective service delivery and save SA billions.
The official opposition promised to reduce the cabinet to 15 ministers if it is voted into power after the May elections. In its 75-page manifesto, launched on Saturday in Johannesburg, the DA estimated that this move would save the country about R5bn a year.
“It is important to recognise that reducing the number of ministries in South Africa does not mean that we do away with essential departments of government entities. “Rather, it means that we do away with unnecessary ministries, at least in principle, that were created to exercise political oversight and leadership but have failed to do so,” the manifesto reads. During former president Thabo Mbeki’s tenure, he appointed 28 ministers, while the number ballooned to 35 under the presidency of Jacob Zuma.
The DA said that the bloated cabinets were as a result of rewarding political loyalty and patronage.
The party also distanced itself from the move to expropriate land without compensation, arguing that it was an unwise decision.
“As with economic empowerment, land reform does not have to be carried out in a way that takes from one to give to another. The current plans for expropriation without compensation make land reform a zero-sum game when it need not be,” the party states in its manifesto.
Last year the National Assembly took a decision that section 25 of the Constitution be amended to enable the expropriation of land without compensation in the public interest.
The EFF, which has been at the forefront of the push for the bill to come into effect, will need the ANC to get the twothirds majority required to amend the Bill of Rights. Meanwhile, the DA together with COPE, Freedom Front Plus and the African Christian Democratic Party are among those opposed to the motion.
After the National Assembly adopted a joint constitutional review committee report recommending that section 25 of the constitution should be changed to explicitly provide for land expropriation without compensation, the EFF has not shied away from saying it would not be willing to compromise on its first cardinal pillar, which is nationalisation of all land. However, the DA stated that if it governed nationally, it will implement land reform where all stakeholders are winners. “Individual land ownership and property rights are a cornerstone of all successful liberal democracies – these rights must be protected,” the DA’s manifesto states.
The DA further states that the country required a land policy that will ensure that beneficiaries of land reform are empowered and supported through adequate funding of such programmes, a ruthless rooting out of corruption, and the political will to implement it.