The ANC will be having its annual bash on 11/01/2020 in Kimberly. Instead of going on and on about how glorious the movement is, President Ramaphosa would do well to 1st recognize the mess that his party has got us into especially in the last decade, & announce a plan of action.
He should recognize that we are in deep econ. crisis and require a nuanced economic policy agenda. The recommendations of the RET faction are not feasible. Not only are they too crude & out of date, but we have neither the skills, nor the resources to enable an econ. turnaround.
Neither is the alternative plan from the IRR appropriate. A market response that only emphasizes growth may get the econ. growing, but it will accelerate inequality. As some of us warned in the 1990s,this will polarise society, create social unrest, & then undermine growth itself
What is required is a heterodox economic agenda. We need to grow economically so that we have resources to share. But we also need regulation so that the resources generated are invested in health & education, thereby creating the conditions for a sustainable economy & society.
Here are 15 specific recommendations: 1. We need a pact on wages both to increase productivity & facilitate investment. We urgently need a 3 year salary freeze for CEOs and executives & wage increases for others to be limited to inflation. If unions refuse, stare them down.
2. On mining, create policy certainty & stop enrichment. Negotiate a deal with 2 principles ; once empowered, always empowered, & increased empowerment from 26% to 30%. The 4% must be invested in allotments for early childhood educ. univ, scholarships, univ. health, land reform.
3. Target specific sectors - tourism, automotive production, agro-processing, technology etc - for growth. Don’t invest state resources directly, but use regulation on export zones, sector specific policies, and tax concessions to drive private sector investment in these areas.
4. Fix SOEs. Differentiate bet. those that should be publicly managed and others. Get rid of the others through pub-priv. partnerships. For the rest distinguish between publicly managed & state controlled. Appoint competent boards & let them appoint CEOs and executives on merit.
5. Fix schools. Don’t change the curriculum! Get suitably trained principals, enforce discipline, exclude unions from appts & fire incompetent teachers. Declare educ. an essential service with no strikes allowed. Establish an arbitration board of professionals to manage disputes
6. Fix skills, expand TVETs & enhance their quality. Partner TVETS with big companies per sector who will assist with curriculum design, internships & appts. They must produce more skills than their own requirements. Incentivize with tax concessions from skills levy. Close SETAs.
7. Differentiate univs by mandating some to do undergrad. teaching, others to focus on postgraduate teaching & high level research, and still others to undertake a mix of the two. Fund univs appropriately. Create a national income contingent loan scheme for the financing of fees.
8. Declare post-secondary education an essential service and make strikes illegal. Establish a national arbitration board of professionals to manage disputes in institutions. Decisions must be binding on both executive management and unions. Leave councils to govern universities.
9. Stop the current NHI. Negotiate with priv. health care price regulation & an expansion of services for pub. beneficiaries at an appropriate cost. Fix hospitals & fire pol. appts. Distinguish bet. public and state, appt. independent boards who will appt. officials on merit.
10. Implement a foreign policy agenda that pursues reform of global institutions & rules, & urgently brings into reality a free trade African market. Get rid of political appts in the diplomatic corps. None really have the skills required for advancing our foreign policy goals.
11. Fix the Police Service. Appoint competent police officers who are literate, appropriately trained, and meet certain physical benchmarks. Invest in the expansion of the detective branch and make appointments on the basis of merit. Managers must not be members of pol. parties.
12. Fix the prosecution services across the board. The corrupt and violent can never be held accountable with the level of incompetence in our prosecution services. In the interim, partner the NGO & private sectors to bring on the skills required for successful prosecutions.
13. Urgently proceed with prosecutions of corrupt officials & politicians. They must be immediately suspended unpaid, their salaries paid over only when they have been found innocent by a court of law. Change legislation if required to enable this. The corrupt must be fearful.
14. Urgently address violence in the society. Those burning public infrastructure & those involved in violent strikes & protests must be charged, prosecuted and jailed. Politicians who ferment violence must also be arrested and jailed. Stare down & don’t pander to the violent.
15. Publicly advance a non-racial vision that provides S/Africa as a home to all of its people. Don’t cower in the face of nativists & fascists. Stare them down! I promise you; these post-apartheid revolutionaries are cowards. They will fold when confronted with firm leadership.
Lead, Mr President, Lead!Democracies also require firm & decisive leadership.Transformation can be compatible with excellence.Decisive inclusive leadership will create hope.Failure to lead will create demoralization & allow autocrats to come to power. Our future is in your hands.
