Picture: The DA leader, John Steenhuisen
By BAKANG MOKOTO
29 September 2024- The Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, John Steenhuisen said his party chose to put South Africa first. Steenhuisen said in the 100 days since the election, the DA has begun to turn that optimism into action.
“Our first decision was to prioritize economic growth and job creation above all else. By entering the Government of National Unity (GNU), the DA has generated enormous optimism for a better future, and injected new confidence in our country’s economic prospects.
“The single most important outcomes for the GNU are higher levels of growth and lower unemployment. Those are the KPIs that the DA is focused on. Consequently, we are viewing every department in which the DA is represented as an opportunity to drive growth and jobs, and to develop policy priorities accordingly,” he said.
Steenhuisen further said this can be seen in some of the work already done by DA ministers and deputy ministers. He added that this includes promoting a comprehensive spending review to identify government programmes that do not deliver value for the people of South Africa, with a view to eliminating them.
“We absolutely have to bring the debt-to-GDP ratio under 70% in the next five years in order to avoid a fiscal crisis. Faster growth is necessary, but so too is better prioritized spending.
“Working with Treasury and the Presidency to include in Operation Vulindlela the concession of ports and the concession of the rail management system, creating open access to rail, establishing a secondary market for broadband, reforming the local government financial model and reforming the financing of local government infrastructure,” said Steenhuisen.
He said this includes developing the “Home Affairs@home” vision for a digitally transformed department that delivers world-class services without requiring clients to visit Home Affairs offices. Steenhuisen said they have also introduced a Trusted Tour Operator Scheme (TTOS) to unlock tourism from China and India.
“We have refined and finalised regulations for remote work visa and a new points-based work visa that will attract skills into the economy to drive growth and create tens of thousands of new jobs.
“Positioning infrastructure South Africa as the single point of entry for all priority infrastructure projects, to streamline processes and reduce inefficiencies. Initiated a series of investigations into corruption in the department of public works,” he said.
Steenhuisen said they have initiated a review of the 30% local procurement rule for construction projects to ensure that it is not abused by criminal elements and that small businesses are truly empowered. He said this includes amending the KPIs of the Energy and Water SETA and the Fibre, Processing and Manufacturing SETA, to include the number of the learners that are absorbed into employment or enabled to become entrepreneurs.
“Initiating the first ever comprehensive review of education financing and beginning the process of stabilizing the funding for education over the medium term.
“Within less than one month of identifying the issue, the Department of Home Affairs has managed to clear a backlog of almost 250 000 ID applications that had been accumulating for almost a year,” said Steenhuisen.
The Guardian 