DA's Plan for Growth and Jobs - Democratic Alliance

An important sounding board for successive drafts of the 8% Growth Plan has been theparty’s Core Policy Group - a diverse corps of DA public representatives from both theopposition and government, who all work on the economy - whose attendance at regularquarterly meetings is greatly appreciated.Tim Harris, in particular, has played a key role in shaping the direction of the analysisunderlying the 8% Growth Plan, and I would like to express my appreciation for the manyhours he has contributed to refining some of its core proposals.Thanks must also go to Alan Winde, Ian Neilson, Gavin Lewis, Mmusi Maimane, KobusMarais, Lance Greyling, Ryan Coetzee, David Ross, Lindiwe Mazibuko, Haniff Hoosen,Conrad Sidego, Dion George, Brett Herron and Ian Davidson for their contribution to thepolicy development process.There a number of outside experts, from South Africa and around the world, who have beengenerous with their ideas and time, as well as their willingness to assist with honing ourconceptual framework. Your contribution is duly acknowledged.Specifically, I would like to thank Brian Kantor, Greg Mills, Loane Sharp, Yvonne Muthien,Mamphela Ramphele, Ruth Richardson, and Sven Littorin for their insights.Assistance from the Democratic Alliance administrative staff is hereby acknowledged. Inparticular I would like to thank Rene Vaughan for her assistance with logistics on manyoccasions, and Marilyn Quarrie at Parliament, who played an essential role arranging mypersonal schedule while also coordinating the numerous events, meetings and consultationsessions that made this project possible.Ludre Stevens, Jessica Shelver and the rest of the volunteers from the DA Abroad alsodeserve a special mention for the many hours they put into preparing a programme ofconsultations and speaking engagements in London to raise the international profile of the8% Growth Plan.Finally, I would like to express my sincere and grateful thanks to William Attwell, the SeniorPolicy Researcher for the DA, and an emerging authority on matters of economic policy inSouth Africa, who was primarily responsible for researching and drafting this document.William is playing a key role shaping the policy agenda as we move forward to 2014, and isan intellectual asset to the party.The South African economy has what it takes to grow at 8%. This document outlines theDA’s plan to get us there.Dr Wilmot James MPFederal Chairperson of the Democratic Alliance6 | P a g e