EFF manifesto's main points — nationalise stuff, scrap provinces and legalise dope

Grants and social policy

• Double all social grants;
• Old age pensions R4,180 a month; war veterans R4,220; disability R4,180; care dependency R4,180; foster child R2,260; child support R1,020; grant-in-aid R1,020.
• The manifesto does not specify a basic income but it introduces a stipend of R5,000 a month for unemployed graduates.

Climate change and the environment

• The EFF does not support decommissioning coal-fired power stations or the principles of a just transition;
• It supports local recycling, has a good ­landfill policy and will progressively introduce carbon taxes.

Crime and corruption

• Retrain police by 2027 and employ 100,000 more cops;
• Minimum sentence of 25 years for police found guilty of serious crime;
• Protect whistle-blowers;
• Economic justice courts for those unlawfully ­mistreated and exploited by corporations;
• Pardon all Fees Must Fall and political activists;
• A ‘corruption-free government’.

Economy

• The narrative arc of the EFF manifesto is captured by this sentence: “The economy in South Africa continues today to be under the ownership and control of white minority settlers”;
• The centrepiece is the nationalisation of mines, banks and other strategic sectors of the economy without compensation;
• No taxes for companies that create 2,000 full-time jobs across 30 special economic zones and the whole of the Northern Cape;
• Regulate lower and standardised data costs;
• Start state-owned companies in key sectors;
• Start a sovereign wealth fund, to be capitalised by foreign investors.

Education

• Free, decolonised education;
• Prioritise indigenous ways of learning and teaching;
• Focus on edu-tech;
• Scrap the IEB exams;
• 10,000 annual scholarships to top global universities;
• All universities to offer Swahili by 2027;
• R1-million grant for every black PhD student.

Financial sector

• Nationalise the Reserve Bank;
• Start state-owned banks, including a national state bank into which all grants and pensions must be paid;
• Jail CEOs of banks named by the Competition Commission as colluding to fix the value of the rand;
• Start a state-owned insurance company that government employees must use;

• 80% of all private retirement funds to be administered and run by black-owned companies.

Food

• Ensure all food is locally produced, not imported.

Governance

• Scrap provinces and strengthen local government;
• Reduce presidential power to strengthen Parliament;
• Resurface roads and bridges, and eradicate potholes, by 2028;
• Two new water treatment plants in each province;
• Eliminate pit latrines and upgrade education infrastructure.

Foreign policy

• Focus on Africa with a R187-billion annual investment to grow the African economy;
• Turn gaze towards the socialist-populist world, including Venezuela and Cuba.

Health

• Free universal healthcare;
• Each district to have a specialist hospital.

Housing

• Provide spacious, quality houses for all people;
• Regulate rents.
• Stop banks repossessing houses once 50% of the mortgage is paid.

Jobs

• National minimum wage of R6,000 a month with higher minimums in specified sectors;
• 24-hour economy with a three-shift system.

Land

• Expropriate land without compensation;
• Make all land state owned;
• Restrict foreign land ownership;
• Transfer 50% of land to black people within five years.

Energy

• Repair existing power station fleet;
• Stop decommissioning coal-fired power plants;
• Focus on carbon capture, clean coal and nuclear energy, with a starring role for Russia;
• Encourage shale gas exploration;
• Direct Eskom to develop a substantial renewable energy division;
• 200kWh/month free electricity to poor households.

Migration

• All migrants to be registered with Home Affairs;
• Beyond that, free movement of people across Africa.

Public service

• Focus on insourcing of all services the state buys;
• Effective use of conditional grants for municipalities.

Reality check

• This is an extremely long and expensive manifesto. The EFF would run an economy similar to Venezuela or Cuba’s, but with a mixed economy in some sectors;
• It would double (or even triple) the grants budget and the civil service wage bill. The minimum wage proposals would cause most businesses to pack up;
• The economy would collapse because of the proposals in the financial sector.

Cool things

• The focus on young people, students and the ­LGBTQI+ community is well considered, if expensive. DM
  

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This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R29.