LUMKILE MONDI: Zille’s liberalism delivers political and economic identity
While the DA embraces state planning, the Western Cape premier sides with the scepticism of Friedrich Hayek
A democratic constitutional order is a cornerstone of equality. It provides for participation in a democratic process to elect a candidate to carry out a constitutional mandate. The state funds itself through a tax system by ensuring that those who earn more pay more, including at the point of sale in the case of a progressive tax system. To protect the poor, essential goods consumed by the poor are exempted from tax, as has been the case in SA with the VAT commission recommendations that brought in a number of surprise zero-rated goods. The biggest dilemma in a constitutional democracy such as SA, where inequality, poverty and unemployment are embedded, is when appointed leaders are failing to execute the mandate of the people and the constitution. SA is indeed a corrupt country. In the Transparency International 2018 corruption index we scored 43 out of 100, where zero is extremely corrupt and 100 completely clean. Adding insult to injury is that corruption seems to pay, since the...
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