In the lead up to the 3 August 2016 elections we are seeing many comments on Social Media from supporters of the EFF that say; “I can’t wait to enjoy the fruits of economic freedom”.
The accepted definition of Economic Freedom in relation to government requires that government provide infrastructure and policies to support their citizens ability to profit from their own ideas and labour, to work, produce, consume, own, trade, and invest according to their own choices.
Thomas Jefferson observed; “… a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement.”
Could the economic freedoms granted to American Citizens all those years ago be the reason why the American economy is one of the Top 3 most powerful in the modern world?
In contrast to the above the EFF say the following in their policy documents:
On Nationalisation: The transfer of wealth from the minority should fundamentally focus on the commanding heights of the economy. This should include minerals, metals, banks, energy production, and telecommunications and retain the ownership of central transport and logistics modes such as Transnet, Sasol, Mittal Steel, Eskom, Telkom and all harbours and airports.
On Land: The EFF’s approach to land expropriation without occupation is that all land should be transferred to the ownership and custodianship of the state in a similar way that all mineral and petroleum resources were transferred to the ownership and custodianship of the state through the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) of 2002. A structured state support and agricultural-protection mechanism should be applied to all food products, including beef and other meats’ production and processing.
On Building State Capacity: A strong developmental state should necessarily have political power and technical capacity to give developmental mandates to state-owned enterprises (SOE) and private corporations. SOE and private sector compliance with the state’s developmental targets should not be voluntary, but a mandatory, crucial factor around which the state should be able to use a carrot-and-stick system to enforce. It can never be correct that the state operates only with the “hope” that the still colonial and foreign-owned, and thus unpatriotic, private sector, in particular, will voluntarily underwrite the developmental agenda and pursue the agenda of job creation, poverty reduction and sustainable development with the same vigour that should define government.
On Education: At all levels of the education system, pupils and students will be taught to love their country, their people and their continent and will be taught the principles of social solidarity, progressive internationalism and the pursuit of social justice. Knowledge of technical skills alone is not enough to build a country. The EFF will therefore couple technical education with progressive civic education.
On Industrial Development: Massive protected industrial development to create millions of sustainable jobs, including the introduction of minimum wages in order to close the wage gap between the rich and the poor.
On development of the African economy: The question of economic justice is fundamental to the political programme of the Economic Freedom Fighters in South Africa and should be promoted actively in the African continent. This includes the regulation and abolishment of foreign control and ownership of strategic sectors of the economy in South Africa and the African continent.
On accountable government: The EFF shall agitate for the transfer of power to the people and make democracy real for the majority.
Somewhere, someone read the wrong dictionary when choosing the EFF’s name!
Alan Straton
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