South Africa faces a number of economic challenges from slow economic growth, to an high unemployment rates and high interest rates.
Ahead of the 2024 elections, here is a look at the economic policies of major South African political parties.
African National Congress (ANC)
The ANC’s manifesto have been broken up into various priorities. This is a look at the economic priorities for the ANC
Priority One: Put South Africa to work
The ANC wants to put South Africans to work, through public employment programmes that create work opportunities in the public, small businesses and social sectors.
According to ANC manifesto, over the next five years the ANC will:
– Create and sustain 2.5 million work opportunities delivering public goods and services in communities. This includes work done through the Presidential Employment Stimulus, funding to civil society through non-profit companies and organisations to provide work opportunities; expand and institutionalise the National Youth Service in partnership with the SANDF, and work opportunities for unemployed graduates,
– Increase support for small enterprises, entrepreneurs and cooperatives, especially in townships and villages, providing additional one million work opportunities, with set-asides for women, youth and persons with disabilities.
– Engage the private sector on job creation, to contribute to the national efforts to create employment and get South Africans working.
– Continue to promote and monitor employment equity to ensure that black people, women and persons with disabilities are represented in the public and private sectors, in the professions and artisanal sectors towards the growth of a vibrant, non-racial and non-sexist middle strata, critical to national development.
Priority 2: The economy
The ANC manifesto said that they will build SA industries for an inclusive economy, by implementing a cross-cutting industrial plan that drives growth and creates opportunities for young people and other unemployed persons.
According to ANC manifesto, over the next five years the ANC will:
– Advance industrialisation as a driver of economic transformation, with active support for localisation, and high growth and labour intensive industries.
– Protect strategic existing industries, like steel, and advance the industries of the future.
– Increase investment in a large-scale social and economic infrastructure plan.
– Fix the current constraint in energy, transport and logistics as important network industries and strategic national assets that are critical to industrialisation, growth and development.
– Continue cultivating partnerships to support the development and expansion of domestic industries with significant potential to create sustainable jobs.
– Expand the black industrialist programme to support 2,000 companies.
– Ensure small businesses, cooperatives and enterprises owned by women, young people and persons with disability – especially in townships and villages – are included across all value chains through set-asides in the public and private sectors.
– Increase exports to global and continental markets leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), BRICS Plus and other bilateral relationships.
– Accelerate land reform and redistribution to reduce asset inequality and protect security of tenure, improve food security and agricultural production, promote rural and urban development and enable greater access to housing.
– Align monetary, fiscal and trade policy, along with transformation of the financial sector, to meet basic needs and support job creation and industrialisation.
Priority 3: Cost of living
The ANC plans on tackling the high cost of living, by taking steps to make life more affordable for workers, unemployed persons, households that are headed by and the middle class. The ANC will do this by addressing key needs like food, housing, health care, energy, transport and wages.
According to ANC manifesto, over the next five years the ANC will:
– Prioritise food security, including through VAT exemption on essential items, land reform, support for community and home gardens. We will act against price fixing.
– Maintain and expand subsidised basic services like water, houses for the poor and indigent policies in municipalities.
– Strengthen health services and implement the National Health Insurance (NHI) to make quality health care affordable and available to all.
– Promote cheaper and subsidised solar power.
– Introduce measures to regulate rental prices for student accommodation.
– Ensure the National Minimum Wage increases in line with inflation and ensure full compliance.
– Strengthen income support through existing social grants and use the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants as a mechanism towards phasing in a basic income support grant.
Democratic Alliance (DA)
According to the DA manifesto, they have a plan to rescue South Africans from unemployment
The DA said that they have multiple proposals to improve economic competition, increase employment and unleash enterprise, starting with DA’s Youth Employment Opportunity Certificate.
The DA’s Youth Employment Opportunity Certificate
The DA plans to create more jobs for our youth by introducing a Youth Employment Opportunity Certificate which will help young people break free from the constraints of the minimum wage and improve their chances of finding employment.
According to the DA, the goal is to make it easier for young people aged 18 – 35 to go from not having a job to having one by offering flexible employment terms.
The DA said that the certificate will be valid for two years and will be implemented to give unemployed people who have not been employed for 12 months or more the right to exempt themselves from sectoral wage agreements.
This policy will make it easier for employers to hire those who have been out of work for long periods of time.
According to the DA manifesto, the DA will also improve job creation through the reformation of the restrictive labour market by:
– Overhauling restrictive regulations within the Labour Relations Act that currently deter hiring and, instead, fostering an environment that promotes job creation.
– Facilitating skills development to carve out a distinct apprenticeship category within the Labour Relations Act. By making apprenticeships a stand-alone category, we aim to encourage employers to hire, train and enhance the skills of our workforce. Currently, apprentices are categorised as employees. This disincentivises employers from hiring apprentices as they would need to comply with the same onerous labour regulations applicable to employees.
– Removing racial targets or quotas in the Employment Equity and the Preferential Procurement Acts, measuring progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an indicator of redress and development instead of using race.
– Promoting the principle of non-racialism, fostering an environment where meritocracy and diversity thrive.
– The DA will amplify the SDGs’ use and impact by leveraging private sector involvement through procurement. This policy would give preference to the company that makes the most positive socio-economic impact as measured by the SDGs.
– Broadening the collective bargaining system so that it is more representative of bargaining parties. We will also exempt SMMEs from the administrative extension of bargaining council agreements.
– This will be done by amending the Labour Relations Act so that small businesses do not have to participate in collective bargaining agreements. If parties are not signatories to collective wage agreements, they should not be subject to those agreements.
– Collective agreements extended throughout an entire industry, including small businesses, compel these enterprises to implement the conditions contained in these agreements. This poses a financial challenge for small businesses as they struggle to match the economies of scale enjoyed by larger counterparts. Additionally, these agreements frequently overlook the financial viability of smaller entities. Exempting SMMEs from this obligation will make it cheaper and easier for them to hire people.
– Making labour unions pay a deposit to an appropriate independent body before they can embark on legal strike action. Any damage or destruction caused during strikes should be reimbursed out of deposits paid by those undertaking the strikes. The primary functions of bargaining councils are to conclude and enforce collective agreements in relation to terms and conditions of employment or matters of mutual interest.
According to the DA’s manifesto, the DA will change the tax system to encourage investment, create jobs and restore public trust. The DA will do this by:
– Committing to no new taxes. People are already heavily overburdened by existing taxes. Rather than trying to extract more out of the approximately 5.5 million people who keep South Africa’s coffers afloat, we need to broaden the pool of taxpayers.
– Preventing hidden tax increases. In the national government, the DA pledges that tax brackets will be adjusted for inflation. This way, income will not be depleted by the introduction of so called stealth taxes.
– Expanding the zero-rated food basket to include bone-in chicken, beef, tinned beans, wheat flour, margarine, peanut butter, baby food, tea, coffee and soup powder. Additionally, we will conduct regular reviews on VAT zero-rated items, ensuring essential products remain affordable for low-income households.
– Enhancing SARS’ capabilities is a top priority. We will ensure that everybody pays their fair share by intensifying SARS’ efforts to fight tax fraud, illicit trade, collect unpaid income and VAT, and ensure taxpayers file and pay on time. We cannot grow the economy without controlling our public finances, slashing red tape, and enhancing competition. The DA will get our public finances under control by:
– Stabilising public debt. The DA will establish debt ceilings in the form of a fiscal rule to limit annual government borrowing, avoiding further debt crises.
– Encouraging responsible fiscal spending. Drawing on past government spending reviews, we are committed to enhancing fiscal efficiency and instilling a culture of responsibility in our financial management.
– Improving state-owned enterprises (SOEs) through a balanced approach to privatisation. The goal is to make SOEs financially responsible, fostering competition and innovation.
– Developing a savings culture through a formalised programme in which employees will be offered the opportunity to commit 10% of their salary towards their pension or an alternative savings instrument of their choice. The programme will be coupled with programmes designed to enhance financial literacy.
According to the DA manifesto, the DA will slash red tape that is restricting back small businesses through:
– Accelerating the introduction of ‘One-Stop-Shops’ for small businesses to reduce the time and cost of starting a business.
– Making it easier for informal traders to sell their goods and services by streamlining by-laws and regulations, expediting the licensing approval process, and assisting them to comply with health and safety standards.
The DA plans on developing a competitive, export-orientated economy by:
– Making infrastructure development a top priority by increasing the ratio of gross fixed capital formation from 14% to 30% of GDP. The DA will harness public-private partnerships to strengthen crucial energy, communication, water, and transport infrastructure. This strategy is designed to spark industrial expansion and attract investment.
– Implementing industrial and competition policy that supports all sectors equally. The DA will implement a horizontal industrial policy that does not pick winners or losers. This will enhance competitiveness and foster a conducive business environment for enterprise to flourish.
– Strengthening trade and internationalisation. The DA will leverage key agreements and legislation such as AGOA and SACUM-EU EPA to enhance our trade connections, streamline trade procedures, and support the competitiveness of local firms in the global market. We do not, however, support existing localisation policies because they jeopardise local businesses’ competitiveness, risk international retaliation, and increase the price of goods.
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)
According to the IFP, political freedom has not delivered social and economic justice for all.
IFP said that the future, freedom and dignity of the country depends on the ability of South Africans to work but the economy has stagnated, causing devastating levels of unemployment, especially among the youth.
The political party said that they champion inclusive, market-led economic policies that empower all South Africans and contribute to the country’s overall economic growth and development.
The IFP said that they believe that economic emancipation is central to addressing the imbalances of the past.
According to the IFP manifesto, for the jobs sector, the IFP will:
– Enforce a set 80/20 employment target: companies must employ a minimum of 80% South Africans.
– Reserve job opportunities in the entry-level and low-skill sectors for South Africans, focusing on the youth.
– Reserve the small enterprise market and the spaza shop industry for South Africans.
– Focus on local production and promotion of South African-produced products; this includes support for local film, media and creative industries to compete globally.
– Exempt SMMEs from stringent requirements and remove excessive red tape that holds back small businesses.
– Revamp local economic development and restructure the Small Enterprise Development Agency, to reduce small business failures and create meaningful jobs.
– Empower provinces, districts and municipalities to support agricultural growth through infrastructure, water schemes, education and financing.
– Introduce a Local Economic Development Grant to support rural and township business cooperatives.
– Act on the findings of the Competition Commission report on the high prices of data in South Africa, which are anti-poor, by enforcing a 50% cut in prices.
– Support the expansion of the industrial cannabis and hemp industries, which will be a catalyst for local economic growth and job creation.
– Roll out an Unemployed Graduate Grant of R3000 for a fixed period to assist graduates in finding meaningful employment.
– Redirect some of the billions spent on SETAs to ensure that all graduates are given a 12-month internship at municipalities, provincial and national departments.
– Support small-scale farming as a measure to revitalise the economy, while recognising traditional leaders as a key player in land management and the transformation of the rural economy.
– Overhaul restrictive labour legislation that impedes job creation.
– Promote fiscal restraint and limit public debt.
– Refuse further bailouts for State-Owned Enterprises and, instead, resuscitate SOEs, fostering competition and innovation where possible, while forming public-private partnerships for SOEs that cannot be resuscitated.
– Open the energy market and diversify energy generation.
– Invest in infrastructure while creating a conducive environment for investors.
– Revitalise Ithala Bank, ensuring that it becomes fully functional and a model of a State Bank so that it can deliver on its mandate to uplift poor communities.
Infrastructure
IFP said that functioning infrastructure is vital to deliver basic services efficiently however, government’s failure to deliver services has become par for the course because it has allowed our country’s infrastructure to fall into a state of disrepair.
According to the IFP manifesto, to improve infrastructure, the IFP will:
– Ensure universal access to safe, affordable water and sanitation by 2030 and replace community water tanks with long-term solutions.
– Ensure that water resources are protected and preserved, while strengthening the regulatory frameworks for water and sanitation quality and safety.
– Define roles for provincial governments in water and sanitation management, by ensuring regular government control and remediation for all water suppliers.
– Resource all municipalities financially and through capacity building so that they can provide clean running water sustainably.
– Efficiently manage Basic Infrastructure Grants provided to municipalities. The projects will be handled through a well-resourced and district-wide shared project management unit. This will avoid the current situation where many municipalities cannot spend their grants and return funding to the National Fiscus.
– Prioritise the maintenance and upgrading of existing infrastructure.
• Immediately embark on a national water audit, repair damaged water infrastructure, and invest in modern infrastructure and technologies to improve the efficiency of our water systems.
– Establish a singular water agency with provincial agencies for localized management.
– Eradicate the bucket toilet system once and for all.
– Promote water treatment/recycling technologies and waste-to-energy projects.
– Recycle grey water and implement measures to reduce water wastage.
– Strictly prohibit sewer discharge into rivers, directing stormwater runoff and sewage into treatment plants instead.
– Ensure the formation of community-based water and sanitation committees.
– Partner with communities, especially women and differently-abled community members, to help deliver essential services, build houses, and lay pipes for water, electricity and sanitation.
Economic Freedom Fighters
According to the EFF economic manifesto, the EFF government will ensure the creation of millions of jobs between 2024 and 2029.
They party plans on creating this jobs through building state capacity, state-led and protected industrialisation, industrial diversification, the protection of infant and existing industries, the transfer of ownership to black people through subsidies, an increase in tariffs, and state-aided marketing and promotion of South African products internally and globally
According to the EFF manifesto, these are the EFF’s commitments on job creation:
– The EFF will establish State-Owned Housing and Roads Companies that will deal with the social housing and roads infrastructure backlog. In the short to medium term, this will result in nearly 4 million jobs.
– The EFF will establish a state-owned security company that will insource all security personnel working in government facilities. This will immediately create 1.2 million sustainable and quality jobs without departing from the existing government budget expenditure.
– The EFF will establish a state-owned Cleaning, Horticulture, and Landscaping Company that will provide these services to state and public facilities and will lead to over 1 million sustainable jobs.
– The EFF government will declare multiple special economic zones in various regions of South Africa, clearly emphasising that each investor will gain special economic zone benefits such as tax incentives and factory building allowances if they each employ and sustain a minimum of 2 000 jobs per factory.
– The EFF government will ensure that a minimum of 80% of the goods and services procured by the state at all levels and at all state companies are domestically produced.
– The EFF government will ensure that a minimum of 50% of all of South Africa’s mineral resources are locally beneficiated, processed and value added to create millions of jobs and create new cities.
– The EFF government will ensure that all food for local consumption is produced and processed on a massive scale in South Africa. This will happen through the intensification of small-scale farming and agriculture and by giving strategic support to all small-scale agricultural operations, including providing trade routes. All food traders in South Africa will be compelled by law to buy South African food products and to support operations that produce these food products.
– The EFF government will build sustainable food processing zones that will supply food items to other parts of the world, particularly the rest of Africa, China, Latin America and India.
– This will lead to the creation of millions of jobs across the entire food chain.
– The EFF government will help communities in the coastal areas to start agro-fishing corporates and businesses, which will be their main source of income and livelihoods.
– The EFF government will ensure that all products and goods that contribute to state construction projects are locally produced, barring exceptional cases where there is no capacity to produce locally.
– The EFF government will ensure the development, protection and localisation of industries which produce basic and daily used goods through import substitution mechanisms. These goods are: glasses, cups, plates, spoons, pots, tiles, energy-efficient building materials, furniture, energy-efficient light bulbs, decorating materials, solar water geysers, insulation material, energy-efficient products, washing products, soap electronics, basic energy-efficient electronics, clothing, shoes, and agro-processing of food.
– The EFF government will ensure that small and medium sized enterprises are given strategic support and that legislation is passed to ensure that key industrial inputs and services to big corporates and companies are provided by SMMEs.
– The EFF government will protect the right of street hawkers and informal traders to trade in a safe and clean environment in all the cities and towns of South Africa without fear of police harassment.
– The EFF government will prohibit the confiscation of street traders’ goods as a means of enforcing municipal by-laws.
– The EFF government will build markets and storage facilities for street hawkers and small vendors in trading areas.
– The EFF government will amend the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) to compel national, provincial and state-owned entities to procure 80% of all goods from local producers and a minimum of 50% from producers of which 50% is owned and controlled by women and the youth.
– The EFF government will build and support state-owned trading and retail platforms in every municipality.
– The EFF government will declare different area as special economic zones with zero company taxes and a building allowance in exchange for each investor creating 2,000 full-time jobs, paying a minimum wage and pension contributions:
– The EFF government will revive and expand industrial zones in Springs in Ekurhuleni, Linksfield and Lanseria in Johannesburg, Randfontein in the Westrand, and Hammanskraal and Bronkhorstspruit in Tshwane.
– Under the EFF government, township economy equates to township industrialisation, and special tax-free economic zones will be created in populous townships.
– The EFF government will declare township areas as special tax-free zones in exchange for 2,000 full-time jobs per investor paying a minimum wage and pension contribution per company.
– The EFF government will pass legislation that ensures a minimum wage of R6,000 across the board for all full-time workers and will fight to ensure that each of the following sectors accordingly receives the stipulated minimum wage:
1. Mineworkers: R15,872.52 per month
2. Farm workers: R6,349.01 per month
3. Manufacturing workers: R8,253.71 per month
4. Retail workers: R6,349.01 per month
5. Builders: R8,888.61 per month
6. Petrol attendants: R8,253.71 per month
7. Cleaners: R5,714.11 per month
8. Domestic workers: R6,349.01 per month
9. Private security guards: R9,523.51 per month
10. Full-time waiters and waitresses: R5,714.11 per month, and guaranteed tips.
– The EFF government will introduce three shift system (morning, afternoon, and night) to allow the economy to operate 24 hours, ensure continuous productivity without overworking individual workers, and create millions of jobs,
– The EFF government will use state procurement as an instrument for driving job creation, meaning that a minimum of 80% of all goods and services procured by the state must be locally produced, and majority-owned and controlled by the people of South Africa.
– The localisation drive will include all procurement, inclusive of automobiles, electronics, textiles, food and professional services.
Fiscal and monetary framework
The EFF said that their party’s government will maximally collect taxes with the aim of a 100% increase in current annual tax collections.
According to the EFF manifesto, they will achieve this by:
– Aggressively combating tax avoidance to ensure all due taxes are collected.
– Curbing illicit financial flows that erode the tax base.
– Expanding the tax base to include e-commerce, effectively tapping into the digital economy.
– Implementing a wealth tax on the ultra-rich to ensure a more equitable distribution of the tax burden.
– Revising corporate income tax policies to ensure fair and adequate contribution from businesses.
– Maximizing the collection of VAT from small-scale traders who are not registered but are responsible for the distribution of goods and services to large section of society.
– The EFF government will reduce the state debt to under 20% of the GDP.
– The EFF government will equitably distribute nationally raised revenue in the ratio of 40% nationally and 60% locally.
– Under the EFF government, a minimum of 50% of funds allocated to local government must be used solely to deliver services.
– The EFF government will use a build, operate and transfer funding mechanism for infrastructure development.
The EFF government will increase capital gains tax and inheritance tax so as to ease the tax burden of the poor and transfer it to the rich.
– The EFF government, including state-owned companies, will abolish tenders and insource all security guards, cleaners, gardeners, drivers and general workers.
– The EFF government, including all state-owned companies, will disallow the use of consultants and directly employ people with capacity.
– The EFF government will discontinue housing subsidies for ministers.
– The EFF government will move the Parliament to Pretoria.
– The EFF government, including all state-owned entities, will discontinue the rental of buildings. Instead, it will occupy government-owned buildings built by a state-owned construction company.
– The EFF government, including all state-owned entities, will use Telkom services for all information and technology related services.
– The EFF government, including state-owned entities, will use the services of state-owned banks.
– The EFF government will remove all presidential and ministerial spousal support.
– The EFF government, including all state-owned companies, will buy all goods directly from manufacturers at a discounted price to leverage economies of scale.
– The EFF government will build government-owned storage facilities to store non-perishable goods.
– A state-owned mining company will start operating at all coal mines owned by Eskom and will export surplus coal to generate revenue for the fiscus.
– The EFF government will increase corporate income tax from 28% to 32%, with a 25% dividend tax, in 2026.
– The EFF government will increase capital and inheritance gains tax.
– The EFF government will introduce education and training taxes on all private companies at a minimum of 2% of total revenue for companies with a turnover of R50 million and more, to be used to fund fee-free quality education.
– The EFF government will increase taxes on speculative capital inflows to 60%.
– The EFF government will raise an additional R100 billion annually through curbing illicit financial flows, including the expropriation of multinational companies which participate in tax avoidance and institute a stronger penalty regime with jail sentences for directors and executives.
– The EFF government will pass an Anti-Avoidance of Tax Act to illegalise all forms of tax avoidance and will ensure that all those found to be engaged in tax avoidance and tax base erosion are imprisoned.
– The EFF will establish a multi-disciplinary cross-agency task team, independent from the South African Revenue Services (SARS) and National Treasury, which will include officials from the National Treasury, Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and SARS, to gather and publish reliable statistical data on illicit financial flows.
– The EFF government will launch a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into illicit financial flows since 1990, headed by a Constitutional Court Judge, by 2025. The Commission will include local and international experts on illicit financial flows, and it will make specific recommendations in respect of past and future transgressions, prevention, detection and the imposition of suitable punitive and restorative measures.
– The EFF government will adopt a long-term infrastructure financing model.
– The EFF government will combine all Municipalities’ Pension Funds into one Municipal Employees Pension Fund (MEPF), with an investment mandate that focuses on Municipal Infrastructure Development.
– The EFF government will reduce the cabinet to half of its current size and eradicate the positions of deputy ministers.
– The EFF government will reduce VAT to 14%.
– The EFF government will highlight employment targeting as the primary measure of fiscal.
– The EFF government will establish a state-controlled credit rating agency to provide independent assessments of the national economy and counteract bias from international rating agencies.
– The EFF government will introduce a progressive luxury goods tax, targeting high-value items, to redistribute wealth and ease the tax burden on essential goods for the poor.
– The EFF government will implement a transaction tax on high-frequency trading to curb speculative financial activities and generate additional revenue for public spending.
– The EFF government will introduce a robust financial transaction tax on large multinational corporations to ensure they contribute fairly to the national economy.
– The EFF government will mandate a minimum interest rate on savings accounts to protect and encourage individual savings, especially for low-income earners.
– The EFF government will implement a special tax on automation and robotics used by corporations, with proceeds funding job creation and skills development.
– The EFF government will introduce a rent control policy to protect tenants from exploitative rent increases and stabilize the housing market.
– The EFF government will mandate a living wage for all workers, significantly higher than the minimum wage, to ensure economic dignity for all labourers.
– The EFF government will enforce a strict regulatory framework on consumer credit to prevent predatory lending practices and protect consumers from excessive debt.
– The EFF government will establish state-owned banking system to provide low-interest loans to small businesses and start-ups, particularly in underprivileged communities.
– The EFF government will establish a foreign exchange control mechanism to stabilize the national currency and manage capital flows effectively.
– The EFF government will implement a sovereign debt restructuring program to renegotiate existing debts and reduce reliance on foreign loans.
– The EFF government will launch a national financial literacy campaign to educate citizens on personal finance management, investment, and economic rights.
– The EFF government will introduce a special tax incentive for businesses that invest in renewable energy and sustainable practices.
– The EFF government will create a national emergency economic fund to provide immediate financial support during economic crises or natural disasters.
– The EFF government will enforce strict regulations on the inflow of foreign currency into the country, with stringent reporting requirements to prevent illegal money laundering and maintain economic stability.
– The EFF government will implement a rigorous oversight mechanism for banks, ensuring they do not engage in currency manipulation. Any bank found guilty of such practices will face severe penalties, including the possibility of losing their banking license.
– The EFF government will amend legislation to require Parliamentary approval for any government loans exceeding a specified threshold. This will include a thorough review of the loan conditions to ensure they align with national interests and economic stability.
– The EFF government will mandate the public disclosure of all conditions attached to both local and international loans issued to the government. This transparency will ensure accountability and enable public scrutiny of the terms and potential impacts of these loans.
– The EFF government will introduce a capital control system to monitor and regulate large international financial transfers, preventing capital flight and ensuring economic security.
– The EFF government will establish an independent financial watchdog with investigative and prosecutorial powers to directly address financial crimes, including tax evasion, fraud, and embezzlement, particularly within the banking and financial sectors. This body will be empowered to take legal action against individuals and organisations found in violation of financial laws, ensuring swift and effective enforcement of justice.
– The EFF government will create a national sovereign fund to manage and invest a portion of foreign exchange reserves, aiming to generate sustainable revenue for the country while protecting against currency volatility.
– The EFF government will introduce stricter regulations on offshore investments by corporations and individuals to ensure that a significant portion of generated wealth remains within the national economy.
– The EFF government will implement a tiered tax system on foreign investments, with higher rates for short-term speculative investments and lower rates for long-term, sustainable investments that contribute to the country's development.
– The EFF government will mandate regular audits of the South African Reserve Bank and other major financial institutions to ensure compliance with national economic policies and objectives.
– The EFF government will introduce legislation to prohibit the employment of former governors and deputy governors of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) by banks and other financial institutions which they supervised and issued licenses to during their tenure at the SARB. This measure is aimed at preventing conflicts of interest and ensuring the integrity of financial regulatory practices.
– The EFF government will establish a prosecutorial body dedicated to prosecuting individuals found guilty of maladministration and financial misconduct. Those convicted will be blacklisted from employment in any other department, organ of the state, or sphere of government.
– The EFF government will introduce special high tax on game hunting and sale.
– The EFF government will amend the Competition Commission laws to give the Commission sufficient powers, ensuring that the finance minister cannot veto the findings of the Competition Commission, and the relevant court, increase the threshold of fine to 25% of annual profits
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