South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance has welcomed the indication from the South African Communist Party (SACP) that it may go it alone in the next election.
DA finance spokesperson Ian Davidson was reacting to reports following the 17th plenary session of the SACP’s central committee held in Johannesburg at the weekend.
Going it alone is ”exactly” what the African National Congress — of which the SACP is an alliance partner — needed ”to free its hand in implementing the more controversial liberal aspects of its economic policies”.
”Economic growth, job creation and the eradication of poverty should be the ANC’s top priority as the leading organisation in the governing tripartite alliance. It should not sacrifice this principal in an attempt to dissuade the SACP from going it alone in future elections.”
Davidson said that through its membership of the governing alliance, ”the SACP is allowed opportunities to frustrate government’s economic-policy implementation that far outweigh its miniscule political support base”.
”Keeping the SACP within the tripartite alliance has meant that the ANC-led government has had to limit the holistic implementation of some very good policies … to less contentious aspects thereof.”
Policy proposals by the ANC party executive that seem to try to deal with South Africa’s economic reality in an earnest and forthright manner, such as Deputy Minister of Finance Jabu Moleketi’s ”Development and Underdevelopment”, have also come under fire.
Davidson said that the SACP had frustrated action to make the current labour laws more flexible by introducing exemptions from certain provisions for certain types of businesses— manufacturing and/or small businesses — or for hiring individuals from certain groups of the population — the youth.
It has also frustrated privatisation of certain state assets, such as Transnet and Eskom, and the introduction of competition in critical sectors, ”such as energy provision and telecommunications, to reduce the costs of doing business”.
It had furthermore prevented greater access to the South African market for the sake of encouraging investment and greater competition.
”In terms of acting in the economic interests of the country, the SACP has become dead weight to the ANC. If the SACP wants to exit from its cushy position in the tripartite alliance, the ANC should unshackle itself and leave it to do so.”
The SACP holds about 70 seats in the 293 seat strong ANC in the National Assembly.
Mortality report
Meanwhile, the Department of Health’s director general will be asked on Monday for a copy of a Statistics South Africa report on mortality rates — and if it is not forthcoming the Promotion of Access to Information Act will be invoked by a DA MP.
AD MP Gareth Morgan — the shadow health minister — noted reports in the weekend press that the Department of Health had allegedly suppressed a report on mortality rates in South Africa. Morgan said the department and the minister of health had put ”a political agenda ahead of transparency and accountability”.
According to the summary of the report, it sets out the leading diseases causing death as well as a breakdown of mortality rates by gender and age between 1997 and 2004. Morgan said: ”Clearly the department is worried that the statistics will cast a doubt over the effectiveness of government’s strategy to deal with HIV/Aids.” — I-Net Bridge