DA Leader John Steenhuisen at the party's manifesto launch at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 17 February 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Lefty Shivambu) 
Grants and social support policy
- Basic income, grants and social policy;
- Increase child support grant from R510 to R760;
- Extend the child support grant to pregnant mothers to support child nutrition;
- Streamline disability grants;
- Target vulnerable people during food price shocks;
- Convert the Social Relief of Distress grant into a job seekers’ grant;
- The DA claims the package can lift six million people out of poverty.
Climate change and the environment
- A sturdy focus on renewable energy – manufacturing, easing high tariffs for imports (solar panels, etc);
- Commit to net zero carbon emissions.
Crime and corruption
- Decentralise policing to “capable” provincial and metro governments;
- Reduce bloated SAPS senior management; lifestyle audits for cops; partnerships with private security;
- Protect whistle-blowers;
- Appoint a new police watchdog;
- Implement public order policing recommendations of the inquiry into July 2021 violence;
- Crack down on illegal guns while firmly supporting responsible gun ownership;
- Introduce a “watching brief” for poorly prosecuted crimes such as gang violence, rape, farm murders and drunk driving;
- Take a victim-centred approach;
- Dissolve Hawks; start an anti-corruption Chapter 9 institution;
- Disband the State Security Agency and start an intelligence agency afresh;
- Focus on health corruption and create an independent watchdog.
Economy
- Remove race as employment criterion; replace it with the UN Sustainable Development Goals;
- No new taxes;
- Stabilise debt, control spending and fix state-owned enterprises;
- One-stop shops for small businesses.
Education
- Ensure that each child gets 210 teaching days a year;
- Devote the first two hours to reading and writing;
- Introduce literacy and numeracy tests at the end of foundation phase – to triple the number of Grade 4s who can read for meaning;
- Promote science, tech, engineering and maths education, and strengthen the district model;
- Establish school evaluation authorities in every province (based on the Western Cape model);
- Tiered system of NSFAS bursaries – household income up to R180,000: full cost of study; income R180,000-R350,000: 66% bursary; income R350,000-R600,000: 33% bursary.
Food
- Expand zero-rated food to include bone-in chicken, beef, tinned beans, wheat flour, margarine, peanut butter, baby food, tea, coffee and soup powder.
Governance
- Reduce the number of ministers, deputy ministers and ministerial offices;
- Focus on infrastructure;
- End water shedding; get private companies involved in water infrastructure projects;
- Encourage water-sensitive cities and citizens – based on Cape Town’s experience and planning;
- Create a grant for water infrastructure maintenance;
- Abolish and outlaw cadre deployment;
- Remove BBBEE from all state procurement.
Health
- Increase competition and lower private health costs;
- Introduce social reinsurance for medical schemes;
- Risk equalisation strategy for medical schemes – treat all plans as if they are one large fund;
- Subsidise post-retirement medical aid;
- Oppose the NHI Bill, seen as the death knell for the current private medical system;
- Establish a private-public partnership model.
Jobs
- Deregulate the labour market to create jobs;
- Make artisanship a category of skills development;
- Exempt small and medium businesses from bargaining councils.
Land
- Protect property rights as enshrined in the Constitution, and expand land ownership;
- Prioritise government-owned land for distribution to housing, farming and land access;
- Post-settlement support for beneficiary farmers.
Energy
- Break up Eskom’s monopoly, and move the utility away from energy generation;
- Promote self-generation and devolve energy decisions to municipalities;
- Allow homes and businesses to sell to the grid.
Civil service
- Rebuild the Public Service Commission to make it independent;
- Replace the Public Service Act and make public service functions separate from the state;
- Make all appointments merit-based by removing politicians from each level of recruitment;
- Regular lifestyle audits for politicians and officials;
- Introduce mandatory entrance exams;
- Provide high-quality training for public servants.
Reality check
- Except for the racial blindness on BEE, it is an excellent manifesto. With South Africa’s history of colonialism and apartheid, and its racial inequality, the party risks its future if it removes black empowerment completely;
- I found the manifesto’s proposals on lifting people out of poverty, on education, on professionalisation of the public service, and especially on crime and corruption, to be very good;
- Helen Zille’s education expertise is clear in the manifesto, as is Glynnis Breytenbach’s steady hand on crime and corruption policymaking.
Cool things
- The list of foodstuffs to be zero-rated for VAT is excellent, as is the DA’s promise to revisit the list regularly. DM
Read more in Daily Maverick: Elections 2024 Knowledge Base
Read more in Daily Maverick: 2024 elections