IFP: free primary education and a debate on the noose
The Inkatha Freedom Party’s manifesto promises more power for traditional leaders, free education for primary school learners and a national debate on reinstating the death penalty. By Ferial Haffajee
All about…
• The IFP manifesto is well crafted for its target support base. It is the most rural-focused of the manifestos we have seen so far; the party would give more power to traditional leaders if it were to come to power. It uses the late leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s popularity as its leitmotif, with the hashtag #Doitforshenge.
Basic income, grants and social policy
• An unemployed graduate grant of R3,000.
• Review grants and increase if necessary – link all grants to opportunities and training.
• One community, one social worker.
• Legalise baby savers (baby boxes at NGOS for abandoned babies).
Crime and corruption
• More powers to traditional courts.
• Open a national debate on reinstating the death penalty.
• Prompt dismissal and prosecution of corrupt officials, irrespective of rank or political affiliation.
• Use the force of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in areas where gangsterism is rife.
• Support and implement the principles of restorative justice.
Economy
• Curb data costs by 50% through state intervention.
• Grow the cannabis and hemp sectors.
• Revitalise Ithala Bank (Perennially corrupt. – Editor)
Education
• Raise the pass mark to 50%.
• Redirect Seta billions to give internships to unemployed graduates in municipal, provincial and national government departments.
• Free primary education and a focus on fixing NSFAS, the financial aid scheme for disadvantaged students.
• Focus on early childhood education as a priority.
• Teacher accommodation for rural-based teachers.
Food
• A South African Social Security Agency food relief
voucher system.
Global policy
• It’s a nationally focused manifesto.
Governance
• Elevate the role of traditional leaders in governance.
Health
• Devolve autonomy from national to provincial and local levels.
• One regional hospital in each of 52 health districts; expand clinic network.
• Reduce the high cost of medicine.
Jobs
• A strict 80:20 South Africans to foreigners rule across all businesses.
• Job reservation for entry-level and low-skill sectors.
Land and housing
• Increase the qualifying income for fully subsidised housing from R3,500 to R5,500 monthly.
• Introduce a housing benefit scheme for those who earn above the subsidy threshold.
• Subsidise first-time homeowners.
• Integrate hostels into communities.
• A full-scale land audit (This has been done many times. – Editor)
• State support for new farmers and viable cooperatives.
• Make sure communal land stays in the hands of traditional leaders.
• Provincial governments must support this land to the standard of commercial farms.
• Supports land expropriation with reasonable compensation.
• Reactivate local agricultural support centres – promote public-private partnerships in agricultural development.
Migration
• Deploy the SANDF to ports of entry and borders to fortify them.
• Invest in a National Immigration Inspectorate.
• An all-of-government plan to deport illegal migrants.
• A six-month-long permit review process for all foreign nationals.
• Ensure critical skills visas are issued in four weeks.
• Invoice countries whose citizens are in South Africa illegally and who use healthcare services.
National Health Insurance (NHI)
• Supports universal health coverage.
• Redress the funding model of the NHI Bill, while defining the roles of public and private healthcare services more clearly.
Power cuts
• Manage Eskom as a public-private partnership.
• Cut unnecessary fuel levies.
• Maintain coal as a primary energy source while promoting renewables.
• Support the green hydrogen economy.
Traditional leaders
• Protect and sustain traditional leadership through respect, compensation and capacitation.
• Amend Chapters 7 and 12 of the Constitution to improve traditional leaders’ roles, powers and functions.
• Extend the Ingonyama Trust land model to other provinces. Before 1994, the apartheid government transferred traditional leadership land in Kwazulu-natal to the Ingonyama Trust. (It’s not the most democratic system, is open to abuse and places women landholders at a disadvantage. – Editor)
Reality check
• It’s an expensive manifesto that would substantially increase the social wage with hikes in grants and housing subsidies, yet it doesn’t grapple with the necessary trade-offs.
• The powers it envisages investing in traditional leaders raise questions of how much South Africa can afford to spend here.
• The migration policy is Trumpian.
• In Johannesburg, a portfolio run by the IFP in an administration where it was part of a governing coalition was notoriously corrupt.
What’s good
• The IFP manifesto is well written and based on the principle of trust. For example, each section starts with a line like “Trust us to get you working” or “Trust us for safe and dignified homes”.