By Zukile Majova
Political Editor
The Constitution and various arms of the current democratic state would be the first casualties if Jacob Zuma’s Umkhonto Wesizwe party won the elections.
The party blames most of South Africa’s social ills – including poverty, unemployment, the underdevelopment of black communities and the exclusion of the majority from the mainstream economy – on the Constitution.
“With a two-thirds majority, MK will hold a referendum to scrap the 1996 constitution and replace it with a parliamentary system with or without a codified constitution,” the party’s manifesto states.
In this environment, the party says the real wielders of power are unelected institutions and the rich.
“The 1994 breakthrough that seemed to be a strategic victory for our people has turned into a strategic defeat.”
In clear agreement with the EFF, the MK manifesto says: “The foundational issues of poverty, unemployment and inequality stem from the theft of land and mineral resources.
“Post-apartheid reconstruction efforts cannot be pursued through neoliberal policies that prioritise the market over state intervention.”
In sections that read like they were written by EFF leader Julius Malema, MK calls for the expropriation of land without compensation and handing it to the state and traditional leaders.
Like the EFF, the party wants to nationalise the Reserve Bank, commercial banks and insurance companies “to reduce the dominance of private finance over our economy”.
Although state-owned companies were looted and bankrupted during the nine wasted years when Zuma was at the helm, Msholozi now promises to lead their revitalisation “to fulfil their developmental role and spur economic growth”.
The party promises to employ everyone who is struggling to get a job on an entry point stipend of R4,500 a month and create over five million jobs in five years.
After matric, young people would undergo compulsory military service.
Meanwhile, at a media briefing in Johannesburg on Friday, Malema said the EFF hoped to form a coalition with MK as the two parties had similar objectives.
Pictured above: The MK manifesto claims the foundational issues of poverty, unemployment and inequality stem from the theft of land and mineral resources
Source: X
