By Simon Nare
Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen claims that his ministers in the Government of National Unity are outshining their counterparts in other parties, and the DA is teaching the ANC to do more and faster.
Unveiling the party’s State of the National Address on Wednesday ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa delivering the real SONA in the National Assembly on Thursday, Steenhuisen bragged about how his party was the stable anchor of the GNU.
Steenhuisen said the DA had scored some victories in the multi-party coalition government and had forced Ramaphosa to implement economic reforms which would be announced by the president during SONA.
He revealed that these included the removal of a clause in the National Health Insurance Act, which would have led to the termination of private medical aids. He said the clause has been removed from the government’s medium-term plan.
“We (DA) have also argued strongly against the NHI in its current form, and I have provided the president with a number of constructive alternatives. I want to be clear: We are insisting that private medical aids must remain as they are, separate from any government scheme.
“We look forward to working with the president and the Ministerial Advisory Committee to put in place alternatives to the NHI in its current form that will provide all South Africans with access to quality healthcare, regardless of their socioeconomic background,” he said.
Steenhuisen went on to point out all the successes in the portfolios led by the DA, including agriculture which he heads up.
He added that in the eight months since the DA joined the GNU, the party’s ministers including education, home affairs, public works and infrastructure, and communications and digital technologies, have delivered immensely.
He said that while the DA was delivering growth and jobs in the portfolios it led, the party continued to push the ANC to urgently embrace the economic reforms South Africa desperately needed.
“There is an alarming lack of urgency in the ANC. We have pushed the ANC to implement pro-growth, pro-jobs reforms through the medium-term development plan process, and we have pushed the president to announce such reforms during his State of the Nation Address,” he said.
Some the reforms that would be announced by the president on Thursday evening included fiscal discipline and debt management, commitment to a credible plan to reduce government debt, and to end bailouts to failing state-owned enterprises.
He said the money the country was spending on debt reduced the amount it should be spending on essential services. Debt currently consumed 21% of the budget.
If the country failed to bring the debt down to below 70% of the growth domestic product, the borrowing costs would collapse the entire fiscus.
“South Africa cannot cut, tax or borrow our way to a better future. The only credible, sustainable path forward is to achieve much more rapid economic growth. And that means having the political will to drive reforms forward with real urgency.
“Unless the GNU urgently implements policies that drive economic growth and enable job creation, South Africa will fail. The hopes, livelihoods and security of the South African people are on the line. Those are the stakes,” he warned.
Steenhuisen argued that the ANC needed to re-evaluate its approach in redressing the historical injustices of the past, saying the current approach has only favoured the politically connected at the expense of large majority who found themselves languishing in abject poverty.
Further, the country needed to reform labour laws to make it easier to hire young, unskilled and semi-skilled workers. And one way to achieve this was to reduce the power of bargaining councils
Steenhuisen repeated the party’s opposition to the Expropriation Act and that it was still approaching the courts to fight the new law. He suggested that the Act be sent back to Parliament.
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