Emphasis on being effective
They come from different political parties but they all have one thing in common -- they believe they can run South Africa better than the ANC. Reporters THULANI GQIRANA and ROCHELLE DE KOCK look at what COPE, Agang and the Freedom Front Plus had to offer.
THE Agang “citizens’ manifesto”, launched on Saturday, rests on five Es, which are Empowerment, Education, Entrepreneurship, Employment and Effective governance.
HEALTH
Ensure high quality healthcare by bringing in private doctors to run clinics; Allow these (private) doctors to take on National Health Insurance patients; Provide nurses and doctors with a good working environment and the required equipment and medication; Ensure health care is accessible and affordable for all;
EDUCATION
The party promises to harness the power of education by: Introducing a 50% minimum pass mark for all subjects and grades; Providing bursaries for students who achieve 70% or higher; Introducing public service as a way to pay back free tertiary education; Conduct subject specific competency tests for all teachers and link pay increases and bonuses to competency and qualifications; Provide incentives for teachers, especially maths and science, working in rural areas; JOBS While the party does not specify how many jobs it would create, it plans to tackle unemployment by: Transforming the education system by placing emphasis on skills training; Establishing skills development programmes and funding on-the-job training; Creating better access to job opportunities for the disabled; and Making sure that state-owned enterprises spend a fixed amount of their payroll on training and developing skills among the youth.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Cut the red tape faced by small business; Open South Africa to foreign entrepreneurs who want to start high-growth business; Change the tax system to better support entrepreneurship; and Develop partnerships with banks and other financiers of small business so they operate through one-stop hubs to replace overlapping provincial and national government small business support organisations and agencies.
LAND
The party has committed to: Ensuring that government, as the biggest landowner, transfers 50% of the land to satisfy the need for residential property development, and for the building and establishment of factories and other industrial properties;
Encouraging the growing of industrial crops such as bamboo to detoxify compromised land in mining areas, because it believes industrial crops such as hemp, flax and soya offer promising opportunities for re-industrialisation.
