JUJU’S LITTLE RED PAMPHLET
The EFF is ready to govern, as demonstrated by the detailed blueprint for economic emancipation set out in its manifesto and unveiled yesterday
Leaders of the EFF wave copies of the party’s election manifesto at the launch of the document in Pretoria yesterday. From left, deputy secretary-general Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi, secretary-general Godrich Gardee, president Julius Malema, deputy president Floyd Shivambu, national chair Dali Mpofu and treasurer-general Leigh-Ann Mathys.
● Yesterday marked 29 years since the apartheid government capitulated to pressure for political freedom through FW de Klerk’s announcement of the release of political prisoners and unbanning of liberation movements. February 2 also witnessed the EFF’s launch of one of the clearest and most detailed election manifestos to be produced in post-1994 SA.
The EFF’s manifesto is not just a bucket of empty promises, but a blueprint and a plan of action through which SA will decisively end economic apartheid.
While institutionalised apartheid, segregation and repression partially ended with the removal of the racist National Party and its whites-only government, economic apartheid remains a solid reality in SA. Black people remain landless, they remain on the margins of economic activities and outside of the economic participation that improves lives.
The majority of those who participate in the economy do so as suppliers of cheap and easily disposable labour. Landlessness and joblessness among black South Africans have reached crisis levels.
While focusing on clear, implementable and decisive programmes for all spheres of governance, the EFF’s emphasis for the 2019 general elections is on land and jobs.
The EFF’s theme for the 2019 elections is “Our land and jobs now”.
The emphasis on land derives from the fact that 25 years since the attainment of political freedom, 80% of the population continues to occupy less than 10% of SA’s land.
The emphasis on jobs is motivated by the sad reality that, after 25 years of attempts at addressing the matter, more than six million capable South Africans who need jobs are unemployed and almost three million are too discouraged to even look for a job, with no hope that anything will change unless the current government is changed.
The emphasis on now is informed by the fact that 25 years is a long time for any political party to keep making empty promises. The crises of racialised poverty, inequality, underdevelopment, landlessness and joblessness are being experienced now, and must be resolved now!
More fundamentally, the emphasis on now is because we cannot postpone the true liberation of our people from economic apartheid.
We are not part of the 1994 elite pact. We are a completely new generation, with new demands. And our demands, unlike those of the 1994 generation, will not be postponed. We refuse to be silenced with socalled reconciliation. We want justice now. We want our land now. We want jobs now. We demand the economy now!
The economy in SA continues today to be under the ownership and control of white minority settlers, whose ownership and control of land, in particular, were gained through settler colonialism and its corollary, the dispossession of the black colonised.
Other sectors of the economy, such as retail chains, industry and the financial sector, are also owned and controlled by the white minority in SA. All the means of economic survival and existence continue to be controlled by the white minority.
The black majority, and Africans in particular, are the numerical majority, yet they continue to be the economic minority, living under difficult conditions and perennially begging for participation in and to benefit from what is a white-owned economy linked to the global capitalist system.
The few black people who participate in the economy do so subject to white approval through a BEE model designed to benefit a small number of individuals without ever changing the structural exclusion of the majority.
The post-1994 governments have dismally failed to transfer economic power to the black majority and, even worse, to optimally use government ownership and control of certain state assets for the benefit of all South Africans. Instead, they have reproduced and worsened apartheid economic inequalities. A prominent defining characteristic of all post-1994 governments is their perpetuation of economic apartheid defined along racial lines.
The EFF’s political programme is the only one embedded in the interests of all South Africans, having been organically developed to meet people’s demands. The manifesto we present for the 2019 elections is therefore not a wish list of unattainable goals, but a clear programme of action of what we will do when elected as the government of SA.
What distinguishes the EFF’s 2019 manifesto from all other election manifestos is that it makes specific commitments with time lines, and clearly specifies areas that will receive the deliverables, illustrating the movement’s readiness and preparedness to govern on behalf of the people. The EFF’s quantitative and qualitative growth has taught us that we should always stay in contact with the people and understand their demands and aspirations.
Some of the policy innovations contained in the manifesto include:
● Land redistribution policies that will guarantee land access by all landless people for residential, industrial, cultural, religious and recreational purposes;
● Multiple special economic zones to promote inward industrialisation and manufacturing investments with export capacity in order to make the ownership and control of the economy demographically representative, expand its productive capacity and create millions of jobs;
● Doubling of social grants in order to reduce the crisis levels of poverty and boost domestic economic demands and expansion;
● Usage of legislated state procurement as a boost for localisation and creation of sustainable quality jobs, prioritising women and the youth;
● Reconfiguration of the spheres of government into national and local spheres, eliminating the provincial sphere in order to redirect resources to impactful service delivery and investments; and
● Amending the constitution to make the National Prosecuting Authority a chapter 9 institution accountable to parliament in order to stop selective prosecutions and fight corruption.
Fellow South Africans, the EFF has presented commitments, a programme of action and a clearly articulated plan on what we will do when elected to govern on behalf of the people.
These are not empty promises. They are clear commitments that will be realised under the decisive and capable leadership of the Economic Freedom Fighters. The clarion call is clear: Our land and jobs now! Victory is certain!