The theme of the Freedom Front Plus manifesto is to “Stand up and Build” like the “pioneers” or early Afrikaans colonialists. The party supports a more muscular federal system and autonomy for community councils.

All about…

• Freedom Front Plus wants a Cape Exit, autonomous community councils and guns.
• The FF Plus manifesto’s theme is “Stand up and Build” like the “pioneers” or early Afrikaans colonialists.
• The party supports a more muscular federal system, and autonomy for community councils.

Basic income, grants and social policy

• Basic income (Blank).
• Social aid grants are “justified” but FF Plus wants to “reduce dependence” on grants through “favourable economic conditions that promote financial independence”.

Climate change and the environment

• Empower Green Scorpions.
• Retire coal-fired power stations.
• Upgrade sewage treatment plants and dumping sites.
• Drainage nets on stormwater drainage pipes.
• Ban canned lion hunts and cosmetic product testing on animals.

Crime and corruption

• Focus on rural safety plan, to stop farm attacks and livestock theft.
• Focus on drug trafficking and gangs.
• Prosecutor-driven investigations.
• Protect the rights of gun owners.
• Make private spending on safety and security tax-deductible.

Economy

• Free market.
• Enable a fourth industrial revolution.
• Privatise all state-owned enterprises.
• End affirmative action (“the root cause of poor service delivery and black economic empowerment”).
• Skin colour is not an indicator of disadvantage.
• Increase VAT.
• Visa regulations should be relaxed, to make travelling to South Africa (SA) easier.
• Tax rebates for doing government work, such as repairing potholes or paying for security.

Education

• Higher pay for teachers at poor schools.
• Community-run schools and home schooling are encouraged.
• Schools to be allowed to choose whether to be run by the government or by a community council.
• Mother-tongue teaching – the party “condemns the creeping language imperialism of Anglophiles”.

Food

• Return fishing quotas to communities; fix the Department of Fisheries.
• Tariff protection for the agricultural sector; protect food security.
• Property owners must make arable, fertile land.

Global policy

• Self-interest and mutual respect are guiding principles.
• Reinforce SA’s central role in Africa.
• Support a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

Governance

• Smaller, more agile government limited to defence, policing and justice – one minister per portfolio, no deputy ministers.
• The rest of government should be run by autonomous community councils and the private sector – “authority should be exercised on the lowest, possible level”.
• These councils should manage schools, old age and children’s homes, community institutions (for example museums and heritage sites).
• Expand the definitions of community property associations.
• Reduce the size of municipalities.
• Public service should be a service provider rather than a job creator.
• Supports a CapeXit (Cape exit) as “…registered voters in the Western Cape are afforded the opportunity to express a view on the path of self-determination” to take “to greater independence and decision-making about their future”.

Health

• Encourage and enshrine public-private healthcare delivery systems.
• Focus on preventive primary healthcare.
• Stop over-regulation of medical aids.

Jobs 

• A deregulated labour market.
• Abolish transformation targets, and focus on development.

Land

• Amend the Expropriation Amendment bill, which sets out how to expropriate land without compensation; place the right to confiscate with the High Courts.
• Immediately redistribute state-owned land and implement a “willing seller, willing buyer” policy after that.
• Protect private property rights.

Migration

• Restore border control.

National Health Insurance (NHI)

• Abolish plans for NHI.

Power cuts

• Rapid transition to renewable energy – tax incentives and zero-rated solar panels.
• Unbundle Eskom over the medium to long term, and privatise.
• Incentives for solar installations.

Reality check

• The Freedom Front Plus is going to be an outlier in the 29 May election because its policies and clear-eyed focus on a specific constituency are tried and tested.
• But the jury is out on whether its manifesto, with its philosophy of own affairs, a “Cape exit”, and rights (Read for white and some coloured people. Ed), is in keeping with the Constitutional imperatives of a unitary state built on the principles of social justice.

What’s good?

• The environmental section, and proposals about living multilingualism are promising.
• We particularly like the tax rebates for us doing the government’s work, such as fixing potholes. DM

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