South Africa’s ruling Africa National Congress’s (ANC’s) documents suggest that government is beginning to embrace the Democratic Alliance (DA) economic policies, says official opposition leader Tony Leon.
Leon — who joined his then official opposition Democratic Party to the New National Party (NNP) five years ago on Friday, said: “Even from outside government, we have managed to make a difference to the lives of ordinary South Africans.
“We have persuaded the ANC to adopt significant DA policy proposals, such as our ‘prisons Policy’ and to put 150 000 cops on the street.
“Recent ANC documents [prepared for next week’s national general council] suggest that the government is beginning to embrace our economic policies as well. The African National Congress seems set on finally liberalising exchange controls, creating a two-tier labour market, creating export processing zones and increasing exemptions for small business from collective bargaining agreements and labour regulations.”
But taking a stab at the ANC, Leon says his party supported the promotion of broad-based black economic empowerment [BEE] and employee-share-ownership schemes “that benefit the many, not just an elite few,” and that this had “also resulted in a noticeable shift in the way BEE deals are conducted”.
“These are just some of our many ideas that have been taken up by the government. And South Africa today is a better place for it. Despite the cartoonish caricaturing of our party by some in the media, as a carping, overly critical ‘opposition-for-the-sake-of-opposition’ grouping, we have always commended government for doing the right thing and slammed them when they’re wrong.”
Leon acknowledged that his party “has certainly not been untouched by scandal”.
He mentioned billionaire fraudster Jurgen Harksen who allegedly funded the party, floor-crossing glitches and the desertion of NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk “and his merry gang” — but he said the DA could, without being complacent or narcissistic, reflect on the party’s history with some satisfaction. ‒I-Net Bridge