Focus on ‘safe’ reforms falls short of fundamental reforms needed
29 February 2024 - 16:44
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Change Starts Now leader Roger Jardine. Picture: Veli Nhlapo
Change Starts Now (CSN) leader Roger Jardine says SA needs “a turnaround plan that can mobilise resources on a significant scale so that these can be rapidly and safely invested to stabilise our economy and raise living standards for our people” (“Fixing the economy to drive growth, create jobs and end poverty”, February 21).
While noble, the approach The Change Charter advocates is based on incorrect assumptions and will lead SA further astray. Higher public spending, funded by increased taxes, will not result in sustainable economic growth.
An Institute of Race Relations research paper released last week and available on our website, “Slash waste, cut taxes”, shows that the government has become significantly worse, even while it has grown alarmingly in size. This gives us the worst of both worlds: a large, incompetent government. Shovelling more money into the maw of the beast will not cure what ails it.
Rather than more spending, fixing SA requires the inexpensive but politically tough reforms we describe in “Blueprint for Growth: Arming SA’s Pro-Growth Forces”, also released last week. These include:
Boosting investment by scrapping threats to property rights like expropriation without compensation, prescribed assets and National Health Insurance; and protecting life and property from criminals by repairing the broken law enforcement agencies.
Easing job creation by liberalising the labour market and eliminating race-based employment rules.
Fixing infrastructure by responsibly privatising state assets, eliminating complex, contradictory procurement rules in favour of clear value-for-money procurement, and bringing private sector management expertise to bear.
Empowering South Africans effectively through economic empowerment for the disadvantaged, which lets individuals pay for schooling, healthcare and housing of their choice with state-funded vouchers, among other measures, while keeping in place the social welfare net that protects the most vulnerable from the effects of serial government failure.
CSN’s focus on “safe” reforms, such as infrastructure development, falls short of the fundamental reforms we need. The tough ones listed above are what will spark SA’s entrepreneurial spirit and attract foreign investment. We need to abandon the belief that prosperity can be achieved through redistribution.
Instead, prosperity begins where government successfully guarantees the protection of life, liberty, and property. Then we can ensure that the table around which we all sit is not only stable but capable of supporting a feast of opportunity and growth for all South Africans.
John Endres CEO, Institute of Race Relations
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Incorrect assumptions
Focus on ‘safe’ reforms falls short of fundamental reforms needed
Change Starts Now (CSN) leader Roger Jardine says SA needs “a turnaround plan that can mobilise resources on a significant scale so that these can be rapidly and safely invested to stabilise our economy and raise living standards for our people” (“Fixing the economy to drive growth, create jobs and end poverty”, February 21).
While noble, the approach The Change Charter advocates is based on incorrect assumptions and will lead SA further astray. Higher public spending, funded by increased taxes, will not result in sustainable economic growth.
An Institute of Race Relations research paper released last week and available on our website, “Slash waste, cut taxes”, shows that the government has become significantly worse, even while it has grown alarmingly in size. This gives us the worst of both worlds: a large, incompetent government. Shovelling more money into the maw of the beast will not cure what ails it.
Rather than more spending, fixing SA requires the inexpensive but politically tough reforms we describe in “Blueprint for Growth: Arming SA’s Pro-Growth Forces”, also released last week. These include:
CSN’s focus on “safe” reforms, such as infrastructure development, falls short of the fundamental reforms we need. The tough ones listed above are what will spark SA’s entrepreneurial spirit and attract foreign investment. We need to abandon the belief that prosperity can be achieved through redistribution.
Instead, prosperity begins where government successfully guarantees the protection of life, liberty, and property. Then we can ensure that the table around which we all sit is not only stable but capable of supporting a feast of opportunity and growth for all South Africans.
John Endres
CEO, Institute of Race Relations
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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