Days before South Africa’s most important general election since 1994, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has released a Misery Index, statistics that the political party said tracks the governing African National Congress’ (ANC) failures.
According to the DA, the Misery Index is a statistical tool that tracks the economic suffering felt by ordinary people due to the risk of (or actual) unemployment, mixed with an increasing cost of living, among other things.
“Throughout its 30-year tenure in government, across six administrations, the ANC mismanaged the South African economy. Its leaders combined stepped up state interventionism with venality, to disastrous effect.
“As a consequence, nearly every single economic indicator points in the wrong direction, while vulnerable South Africans have been left to pay the price,” reads the document.
However, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that in the 30 years it has been in power, there has been prosperity and growth in the country.
“Since the dawn of democracy a lot has been done in the areas of housing, water, sanitation, education, social security, poverty eradication, transport and roads infrastructure.
“Plus, equality in the workplace and gender transformation, electrification, crime, international work, youth and women empowerment, the fight against corruption, and an end to the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide,” said Ramaphosa.
The DA pointed out that South Africa today has one of the highest unemployment rates in the entire world, “and it is an entirely man-made disaster which was designed and executed at the hands of the men and women in the ANC.
“The official unemployment rate hovers around 41%, while seven out of every 10 young people face the indignity of not being able to secure a job.”
In its manifesto launch, Ramaphosa said the party intends to create more than 2.5 million job opportunities over the next five years. He added that some of these would result from the country’s move from coal-fired power generation to greener energy.
“Our strategy will also meet the new global challenges of climate change. A balanced just transition to a cleaner, greener future can lead to new jobs and secure the competitiveness of our exports,” he said.
The DA also brought up inflation: “Despite the South African Reserve Bank’s best efforts to contain upward spiralling living costs ... South Africans have to battle the most profound cost-of-living crisis this country has ever seen. The crisis must be directly attributed to the ANC’s reckless fiscal management, which has made the Consumer Price Index (CPI) prohibitively high.”
xolile.mtembu@iol.co.za
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