Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie speaks during a media briefing at the Cullinan Hotel in Cape Town on 16 April 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Jaco Marais) 
God first
- The PA places God first;
- It wants a reintroduction of religious education at schools at scale, to teach the Ten Commandments;
- This would mean an end to South Africa’s secular and multireligious identity.
Elevate royal and local leaders
- The PA advocates more powers (especially mining royalties) for “royal leaders” – traditional leaders;
- It wants more state support for churches and community-based NGOs;
- It would upgrade community halls and sports fields.
Building a wall to keep migrants out
- Its manifesto title is #AbaHambe;
- It proposes the mass deportation of people living in South Africa without documents; audits on all foreigners’ “papers”; South Africa as a destination for illegal migration should be “vastly diminished”;
- In January 2024, the PA called for a wall on the border to keep migrants out.
Military service and the death penalty
- A PA government would reintroduce conscription;
- It would reintroduce the death penalty for murder, muti killings, the rape of children and acts of corruption that can be categorised as “high treason” (based on an El Salvador model).
Electricity
- A mixed model of generation with Eskom at the centre;
- A just transition to new forms of energy generation.
Fracking and beneficiation
- The PA supports fracking (mining) for natural gas and the beneficiation of commodities.
A capable state, not a contract state
- End the use of consultants;
- “It is now difficult to achieve even basic repairs and maintenance of government facilities without private sector contractors being paid to do the work, often for far too much money and not quickly enough.”
End trade unions’ influence over politics and policy
- End closed shops for unions; introduce performance-based increase systems; unions should not be able to protect weak police officers and teachers, for example.
Integrity tests for cops
- Cops will face random integrity tests; clamping down on confiscated firearms lost by the police service;
- Promises of a corruption-free government.
Economic policy
- Break the monopolies;
- Support for small, medium and micro enterprises;
- Support agricultural value chains to attain land reform;
- Rethink Financial Intelligence Centre Act (Fica) legislation (anti-money-laundering laws administered by the Financial Intelligence Centre, according to Fica).
100-day Action Plan
- Criminalise anticompetitive conduct; blacklist companies for five years;
- The rich must bear the brunt of taxation, but it should not be made so high that they disinvest.
Reality check
- A manifesto that is completely counter to the key tenets of the South African Constitution;
- It is populist and not terribly well considered.
What’s good?
- (Nothing – Ed);
- Except perhaps the focus on upgrading community halls and sports fields. These are often the only places where poor people can get Wi-Fi, recreation and sometimes a hot meal. DM
Read more in Daily Maverick: 2024 elections
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