The ANC platform represented a significant shift to the left on economic policy, reflected in a heavy emphasis on employment creation and equity. The central message was the need for a People’s Contract to fight poverty and create work. That commitment struck a chord with our people, who appreciated that their biggest socio-economic concerns were receiving the attention they deserve. Overall, the Manifesto talked more about the centrality of state interventions to restructure the economy, the Expanded Public Works Programmes, the need to consolidate and advance workers’ rights, and the need to fight HIV and AIDS.
In part, the progressive tone of the Manifesto reflected the realisation that the majority of voters feel the state must play a leading role in transforming the economy toward more equitable and job-creating growth. Thus, the ANC Manifestos in 1999 and 2000 also strongly stressed the need to create jobs and meet basic needs. But the Manifesto reflected changes in the government’s strategy since 2000, as noted in the Cosatu Secretariat Report to the 8 th National Congress. Its most important economic commitments reflected our victories at the Growth and Development Summit in 2003. The clearest practical indicators of the government’s return to more progressive policies are:
The steady growth in the budget in real terms since 2000. In 2004, the budget grew 8,5% in real terms, with a budget deficit of 3,1%. This type of expansion would have been unimaginable in the late 1990s, under the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy. It has been associated with real improvements in services and the promise to expand public-service employment so as to meet the needs of our people.
A commitment to increasing state and parastatal investment, with clear resistance to the calls to privatise Eskom and Transnet. Although government has not formally ended its privatisation programmes, it now seems more concerned with ensuring that the big parastatals serve developmental aims. However we should take note of intentions to privatise 30% of generation and the government announcement to issue a tender to this effect. This is part of a broader emphasis on the central role of the state and the gradual shift from public private-partnerships to the people’s contract.
The commitment to improving the position of casual and outsourced workers.
The rollout of anti-retroviral treatment for people with AIDS.
An admission by government that continuing on the current trajectory, in particular unemployment and poverty, would inevitably lead to “˜the negatives outweighing the positives’.
The move away from the rhetoric that claims that the state cannot create jobs to the emphasis of the expanded public works programmes and the important role the state can play in job creation and economic growth.
The shifts, though important, do not necessarily satisfy Cosatu’s key demands on the economy. The fiscal relaxation falls short of what we expect to unlock massive resources for growth. Monetary policy still remains fairly tight, and the Reserve Bank has refused to lower interest rates despite the strong rand which is threatening exports and jobs in the manufacturing sector and the mining industry. Our relatively high interest rates, inhibit investment especially by SMMEs. The main thrust of our industrial policy remains competitiveness and is externally oriented instead of meeting the needs of the poor.
The relatively progressive platform and policies of the past few years helped to unite the Alliance . It stands in contrast to the situation we faced in the 1999 elections, and to the 2001/2 period which saw the Alliance teetering on the brink of collapse. All the Alliance parties and the rest of the democratic movement again felt that the ANC took their concerns to heart. Cosatu was able to throw its entire organisational machinery behind the ANC campaign.
Extract from Cosatu Central Executive Committee document May 2004