Wilmot James
Commentators have assailed the DA for its infidelity to its founding liberal philosophy. Welcome as it is to have independent keepers of the faith, even though some merely occupy the high ground of political purism (we are not only the party of Helen Suzman), others will never find comfort in anything but the oppositional mode (there is a wistfulness in Tony Leon’s efforts to reinvent the environment that propels him) and yet others will follow a polemical teleology that pre-ordains a narrative they psychically enjoy telling (RW Johnson blames me, Lindiwe Mazibuko and Mmusi Maimane for our apparent ideological corruption).
Then there are those who wish that the shining knight of liberalism – Ryan Coetzee (I am confident he does not agree with his canonical anointment) – would return to rescue Helen Zille from her noble desire to offer better governance in a country that needs it desperately.
What passes as commentary is as naive as it is shallow. Naive because we live in a country of such unspeakable poverty that every possible legitimate avenue must be found to extract opportunities for poor South Africans and to grow employment. Shallow because liberalism is not simply about individual rights and the separation of powers, but also about the fairness and justice in the distribution of public office, assets and job opportunities. The failure to embrace distributional justice disqualifies the commentators as liberals. They are in fact rank conservatives who would like nothing better than to keep things precisely as they are.
We are not interested in those who wish to preserve the status quo. As a party of change, we need to meet the challenge distilled as follows:
l The increase in inequality as measured by the Gini Coefficient is driven by growing inequalities within and not between the so-called racial groups.
l South Africans living below the poverty line have increased from 17.1 million in 1996 to 18.9 million in 2011, having peaked at 22.5 million in 2002.
l The strict definition of unemployment puts us at 25.67 percent (the expanded definition at 36.8 percent) this year; those between 16-34 years account for 70 percent of the jobless.
l Social assistance spending has grown from R10 billion in 1993/94 to about R90bn by 2011/12 and is projected to reach R130bn by 2015/16.
l South Africans receiving grants grew from 3 million in 1993/94 to 14 million by 2010/11.
l Compared to most of our peers, we do not save very much, and if we did, there would be more funds available to fund local projects.
l More than 9 million South Africans have more personal debt than they can service.
l Our GDP grew at 3.23 percent in 1994. Today it is 2.84 percent. Over this period the highest was 5.6 percent in 2006 and the lowest was 1.53 percent in 2009.
l Compared to our peers, we consistently perform 3 percent lower than their growth rates.
l Black employees in executive management positions went from 8 percent to 34 percent between 1996 and 2011, in management from 10 percent to 38 percent and in the professions/junior management from 32 percent to 52 percent.
l Ownership in JSE retirement funds grew from 15 percent to 28 percent for black Africans between 1995 and 2010, for Indians 2 percent to 4 percent and declined for coloureds from 6 percent to 5 percent and whites from 77 percent to 63 percent.
l Direct ownership in the JSE between 2000 and 2010 grew for Africans from 9 percent to 19 percent, Indians 2 percent to 3 percent, stayed flat for coloureds at 3 percent and declined for whites from 86 percent to 76 percent.
l According to the Reserve Bank, we can grow at 8 percent by 2025 with the right policy-set, creating 5.8 million more jobs and reducing unemployment to 11 percent.
l The total sum spent by government on land reform is close to R69bn, with an additional R14bn budgeted for land reform over the medium term, enough to purchase 58 percent of productive agricultural land in South Africa.
l Seventy-eight percent of South Africans live in formal dwellings (up from 65 percent in 1996).
l Transfer of title deeds: more than 1 million RDP beneficiaries have not received title to their homes.
The Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto makes the striking observation that if citizens knew what assets they owned, where they could obtain legal title and understand how to leverage greater assets to their advantage, more wealth would be created, more independence from the state acquired and greater dignity and self-respect as citizens earned. The figures I cite indicate that we have come some way in growing and shifting assets since 1994. It is equally clear that bold moves are necessary to change the course of the fortunes of South Africans who are poor.
So here is the DA’s offer:
We shall provide leadership on the economy: We will provide certainty on and clarity of vision for the economy, the policies we will implement to realise that vision, and ensure that the economy serves ordinary people and not only those connected to the governing party.
We shall provide an enabling environment for growth: By bringing the private sector, organised labour and civil society together in trust-building pacts that inform infrastructure investments, we will, where we govern, provide an enabling environment for enterprise, economic growth and job creation.
We will invest in knowledge: Where we govern we will provide South Africans with quality education and training opportunities that they need to get a job and support the research and development that can make South Africa a winning nation in a globalised knowledge economy.
We will support redress: We will, where we govern, recognise the need to broaden participation in the economy and help make it easier for outsiders to become owners, get access to capital, and actively participate in the economy. As Hernando de Soto argues, more assets must be placed in poor people’s hands to make them part of the solution.
We will manage the government’s money better: We will define the steps necessary to combat all forms of corruption and to make sure that government spending decisions are taken in the best interest of all and not just the few.
We will provide direct incentives for job creation: In recognition of the impact of high unemployment on our economic growth potential, we will where we govern directly incentivise job creation by businesses and press the national government to provide tax benefits for corporate contributions to public goods.
We will support small businesses: We will where we govern make it easier for South Africans to start and grow their own businesses. It must be made attractive to informal sector entrepreneurs to register their businesses so that they may access government programmes and contribute to the fiscus.
We will provide incentives to increase investment and savings: To drive economic growth, attract international investment and help South Africans to maintain quality of life during retirement and difficult times, we will where we govern actively support both increased corporate investments and personal savings.
We will boost trade: the national government must make it easier for South African businesses to trade with other countries, especially our African neighbours, so that these businesses can grow and create jobs.
We will build trust: we will honour the sacred human institution of the promise and ask that citizens keep us to our word.
The DA grounds its approach in the work of one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, the late Harvard University philosopher John Rawls. In his Theory of Justice(1971) Rawls argues that in modern society where high levels of social co-operation are necessary for human progress, it is necessary to formulate norms by which the basic rights and responsibilities as well as the social and economic costs and benefits generated by the political economy should be distributed.
Rawls furthermore argues that the principles of justice must be arranged as follows: (1) each person has the same claim to the same scheme of equal basic rights, but only as long as they do not infringe on the rights of others; and (2) that social and economic inequalities must satisfy two conditions: (i) they are to be attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity; and (ii) they are to be to the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of society.
It is the latter principle – that of fairness and distributional justice – that propels the DA to support economic empowerment and employment equity.
l Dr James, MP, is the DA’s federal chairperson.