DA's Plan for Growth and Jobs - Democratic Alliance

operative government’. The separation of powers between the executive, legislative andjudicial arms of government was institutionalised.A collection of independent institutions - including the Public Prospector, Auditor General,and Human Rights, Gender and Electoral commissions – were established in terms ofChapter 9 of the Constitution, to guard against abuses of power and protect the rights ofindividual citizens.Progress was also made toward improving the quality of life for many of the poorest SouthAfricans. Through the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), the governmentrolled out a comprehensive plan to expand access to basic amenities such as housing,water, sanitation, schooling, primary healthcare and electricity to communities that had beendenied these in the past.The programme can claim many success stories.For the first time in our history, South Africa has a comprehensive social security systemwhich serves all citizens in need, regardless of race. It features an extensive array of grantsthat provide assistance to senior citizens, the disabled, children in need, foster parents, andmany others too poor to meet their basic social requirements. Millions of people’s lives havebeen changed for the better as a consequence of free healthcare programmes and freemeals at schools.However, shortly after its initial implementation, the RDP began to encounter problems.Economic challenges post-1994It became very clear very quickly that the government did not have the capacity to fullyimplement the RDP. A severe shortage of professional and project management skills in thepublic sector, coupled with inadequate resources and poor administration, resulted in everincreasingbacklogs. The new provincial administrations, only recently established, were in astate of flux, making them unreliable implementing partners.Promises soon outstripped outcomes, and a new phrase began to enter the public lexicon:service delivery failure.It also became apparent that the state did not have the money to fund the RDP’s manyinitiatives. The new government had hoped that the transition to democracy, and SouthAfrica’s welcome reception into the international community, would bring with it improvedeconomic integration, better international trade ties, much-needed foreign direct investment(FDI), and healthy GDP growth.This did not happen. Economic growth idled at 2.5%, far from the targeted 4-6%. The budgetdeficit stood at 4.3% and government debt rose to 50% of GDP. The then-Deputy PresidentThabo Mbeki, and the Finance Minister at the time, Trevor Manuel, understood that if thissituation was allowed to continue it would curtail the government’s policy options andseverely limit the economy’s capacity to create opportunities for people in the long term.It became apparent that with the RDP programme, which presented a large scale fiscalspending programme aimed at improving the life of South Africa’s poorest citizens, the ANChad neglected to create a productive economic policy that would ensure the affordability andsustainability of RDP expenditure. As a result, whilst some indicators of basic servicesimproved, poverty rates in South Africa remained broadly unchanged.21 | P a g e