By: Amy Musgrave
Developing rural economies, and restricting how many foreigners are employed in the country and who owns small businesses, are critical in turning around the economic fortunes of South Africans, according to the Inkatha Freedom Party. The country’s fourth biggest political party prioritises putting citizens first by reserving job opportunities and the
small enterprise and spaza shop markets for South Africans in its 13-point election manifesto plan for 2024. At the same time, it commits to enforcing an 80/20 employment target to ensure that the vast majority of those employed by all companies are South Africans. “The IFP believes that there is no secure future for one segment of society while another remains disempowered. There is no urban future that excludes rural communities,” the 40-page manifesto reads.
On economic development, it says it will focus on the local production and promotion of South African-produced goods. “[We will] exempt SMMEs from stringent requirements, remove excessive red tape that holds back small businesses, [and] revamp local economic development and restructure the Small Enterprise Development Agency to reduce small business failures and create meaningful jobs.”
At the same time, a local economic development grant will be introduced to support rural and township business cooperatives, while slashing high data prices, which are “anti-poor”, by 50%. It will also revitalise the embattled KwaZulu-Natal state-owned financial institution, Ithala so that it becomes fully functional and a model of a state bank to deliver on its mandate to uplift poor communities.
The IFP, whose political strongholds are mainly in rural KwaZulu-Natal, highlights the importance of recognising traditional leaders as pivotal in helping drive economic growth in the province, as they are key players in land management and transforming the rural economy. “The IFP will put poor urban and rural communities first and will partner with and support traditional leaders. “The IFP will continue to advocate for the protection and support of the Ingonyama Trust, as a model of ensuring that everyone has access to land,” it says.
On land ownership, the party will commission a full-scale land audit to determine who owns what. It will use these findings to focus on unused state land, redistribute it where necessary, and support community projects aimed at commercially farming land. “[An IFP government] will focus on small to medium-sized farming and subsistence farming as a core strategy to provide economic relief for rural communities… [and] encourage partnerships and mentorships with experienced farmers to attract and train new farmers and to develop supporting industries. “[An IFP government will] reactivate local agricultural support centres to assist farmers to access tractors and new technologies that will help farmers scale up their production,” the document reads.
Similar to other manifestos, it advocates for the expansion of the cannabis and hemp industries to catalyse local economic growth and job creation. Meanwhile, on human settlements, the party undertakes to link local economic development initiatives, such as training in construction skills, to building subsidised housing units and empowering small businesses in the construction sector and other building-related fields.
