- Ardennes
- May 12, 2002
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At some levels, the EFF seems like a pretty solid (socialist) party. And then you see the giant paintings of Malema and the fawning over Mugabe.
I'd like to actually read that manifesto, though. The more reasonable sounding stuff (like a national minimum wage of R4,500/month) is basically ANC policies but firmer. The ANC's proposal is only to "Investigate the modality for the introduction of a national minimum wage", with no guarantees that they'll actually implement it.
The DA's manifesto comes out tomorrow.
E: Also, if anyone from the US wants to know what real socialists look like (not liberals being called socialists in acts of naked ignorance/trolling), you have socialists.jpg right there.
The way I see it the utility of the manifesto is that it seems to present a firm left position within South African politics, on the other hand, I don't think I would trust the EFF to be the one that gets it done.
I am interested in hearing the DA manifesto to see if it is also going to move leftward. Anyone have a good summary of the factions within the DA, since it does seem to be a open-tent sort of party? How is the left wing of the ANC fairing at this point?
Ardennes fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Feb 23, 2014
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Feb 23, 2014 03:33
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May 9, 2024 18:05
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- Ardennes
- May 12, 2002
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Thanks for all the info, I don't think it would be that easy to piece otherwise. I could see there being tension in the DA since on one hand it is trying to grow itself into an opposition force but in many ways it seems like a liberal (white) middle class party. If anything it sounds like a break in the ANC would actually what would be needed since at this point the EFF (mostly due to being way too personality centered) nor the DA really provide a more grounded left-wing position which South Africa needs at this point.
That said, I guess the DA willingness to invest in infrastructure and public spending is at least moderately hopeful but it doesn't sound like they are going to be attracting many Black voters at this rate.
There is also the issue with the Rand which at last check continues to devalue(up to 11 to USD). One real worry I have is that capital outflows from emerging markets, including South Africa are going to put a sizable hit to their economies much farther in advance than the first world.
Ardennes fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Feb 23, 2014
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Feb 23, 2014 19:17
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- Ardennes
- May 12, 2002
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-24/lamb-for-12-on-400-monthly-shows-south-africa-welfare-addiction.html
quote:Sprawled on a faded black two-seater couch covered with cigarette burns, Eva Matthys, 72, is instructing her 13-year-old granddaughter on how to cook minced lamb -- for 12. That’s how many family members share the government-subsidized house in Brandvlei, a town in South Africa’s Northern Cape province.
Side dishes: macaroni and bolognese sauce. What pays for the meal: South Africa’s taxpayers, via 4,540 rand ($418) in monthly government benefits. Nine of the residents in the house, from Matthys’s baby great-granddaughter to Hendrik, her husband, receive one kind of aid or another. Only one of the 12 works.
Welfare dependency, a problem across the developed world, has reached a danger level in South Africa. More people receive aid than have jobs, and the ratio has been worsening for five years. While the handouts have helped address abject poverty since the end of the apartheid regime, they haven’t helped recipients get skills needed for jobs in a country with 24 percent unemployment.
“The state gives the money, why would we doubt applying for it?” Matthys asked as she arranged the hem of her pink floral skirt over her swollen legs. “Just think how I would have gotten by with all of these children. The government looks after them.”
Over three days following the lives of those in the Matthys house, two young family members expressed the unhappy truth: They need the payments to survive -- yet they would look harder for jobs if they had no such income. From matriarch Matthys -- who berates her offspring for not seeking work -- to 20-month-old Corlea, the family shows how almost impossible it is to unhook from the state.
Benefits Spending
Dependence on welfare has soared since South Africa’s first multiracial vote in 1994. At 13 percent of gross domestic product, spending on social programs including health but not education is less than the developed-world average, calculated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development at 22 percent. Still, it exceeds that of Mexico, which spends 7.4 percent, and South Korea, at 9.3 percent. The new South African budget will be released tomorrow.
“Despite the impact in lifting households out of poverty, so extensive a social grant system in a society where unemployment has doubled since 1994 puts strain on the country’s tax base,” said Lerato Moloi, acting head of research at the South African Institute of Race Relations. “If this trend continues, South Africa’s tax base will not grow fast enough to keep supporting the millions of vulnerable individuals who rely on monthly cash transfers from the state.”
Here is the first bit of the article, the bias is evident but I am interested to see a South African interpretation of it.
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Feb 25, 2014 02:35
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Feb 23, 2014 03:33
