WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-12-14 Time: 11:00:12 Posted By: Jan
South Africa will have to take the Congress of the People (COPE) at its word that its New Progressive Agenda will truly be a New Way and not a damp squib like Britain’s Third Way compromise.
The New Progressive Agenda, Cope’s policy blueprint released for discussion, is still to be endorsed democratically at the party’s pre-launch conference.
More significantly, however, the breakaway party will have to show that it can walk its talk.
Since its formation in the wake of the axing of Thabo Mbeki, there have been plenty of suggestions that Cope is a formation of the ANC’s centre-right against ANC President Jacob Zuma’s militant left allies.
Among COPE’s interim leadership is a fairly representative sample of the well-heeled, with some prime case studies of how to become wealthy on the back of black economic empowerment (BEE) and the revolving door between government and business, a system of patronage that has mostly come at the expense of the poor.
These leaders will tell voters they hold the key to a progressive turnaround of South Africa’s deep-seated economic problems.
The New Way suggests something novel and different from the ANC that it has split from, while the “Progressive” must mean that COPE intends positioning itself somewhat to the left of the current political centre.
Party policy-makers say this means an “activist state” that will intervene and redistribute to “pull” people from poverty and to realise socioeconomic rights, such as food security, contained in the Constitution.
COPE’s formation is founded on an understanding of the need to defend the Constitution and the rule of law.
Will it truly be a New Way or does the new agenda boil down to liberal democratic values, tantamount to a “Black Democratic Alliance” as the ANC has accused the dissidents of being?
There is no doubt that COPE will be competing for the same middle-class vote as the DA, but commentators are unanimous that the party will only be able to challenge the ANC if it also appeals to the 50 percent of voters who live in dire poverty.
COPE’s New Agenda emphasises a “balance between state and markets” as a key part of its “progressive ideology” – a platform that sounds distinctly like the now discounted “Third Way” option of Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, during the 1990s. This policy promised to be left of centre, neither socialist nor capitalist.
In practice, it turned out to be right of centre after Blair removed the Labour Party’s resolution in favour of the nationalisation of public entities that were privatised en masse by his predecessor Margaret Thatcher in the Eighties.
Asked if the New Way was inspired by the Third Way, Phillip Dexter, COPE’s national spokesperson for policy and research, acknowledged that the British new deal could have influenced the COPE policy theme.
“But it is not about Blair’s solution at all. It is about how we in South Africa find our own new agenda,” said Dexter.
Thatcher loomed large, as her neoliberal policies overshadowed Blair’s more progressive approach. With so many die-hard Mbeki loyalists spearheading Cope, the chances are that the former president’s centrist, business-friendly approach might continue to direct thinking when policy-making comes down to brass tacks.
Cope’s draft policy prepared for the congress includes a range of innovative proposals to fight crime and kick-start industry and manufacturing to create more jobs and raise skills levels.
On the other hand, it contains traces of some contentious policy proposals, such as “softer” labour market flexibility, that were rejected by the left and workers during Mbeki’s administration.
An unknown quantity in the Cope mix is the drive by Willie Madisha, the former Cosatu leader, to set up a rival labour federation.
He and Dexter are among COPE’s outspoken supporters of a social democratic path, although Madisha wants unions to concentrate on workers’ issues rather than politics and enjoy no affiliation to any political party.
In keeping with the Mbeki era, COPE is serious about macroeconomic stability and the need for clear monetary policy, such as inflation targeting, which Cosatu continues to trash.
At first glance, COPE’s policy priorities are not too dissimilar to those of the ANC 2009 election manifesto, a glimpse of which was revealed this week.
Health services, industrial policy, rural development, education and employment will be key areas for the ANC, said Gwede Mantashe, the secretary-general of the ruling party.
Progressive policy proposals that position COPE closer to the ANC’s allies on the left, however, include an argument that the rand should weaken to stimulate global competitiveness and a determined effort to set up co-operatives to promote agrarian reform.
Other innovative ideas include “greening energy” production to create jobs, smaller-scale manufacturing to add beneficiation to scarce natural resources and a windfall tax on those who profit when these are extracted in large quantities.
Crime and corruption feature much higher on the Cope agenda. Tapping into middle-class public sentiment, it has come out in favour of resurrecting the Scorpions and halting the deployment of ruling party faithful to powerful civil service positions.
What sets it apart from the DA, on the other hand, is a greater commitment to government intervention to spur economic growth and wealth creation.
Unlike the DA, it is not dead set on the powers of the provinces; instead, it moots a thorough review of the three-tier system of governance, with the possibility of either curtailing the powers of the provinces or abolishing them. Mbeki’s government launched such a review.
Cope’s analysis of BEE is telling: it describes the small black capitalist class as paling into insignificance compared to the “tiny white elite” who still command the bulk of wealth in the country and who rely for their continued existence on their black proteges.
COPE points out the simmering tensions between the “haves” – the middle classes – and the “have-lots” – the wealthy. It argues that the existence of the middle class “haves” is significant for “social progress” and “entrepreneurship” among its core objectives.
Its leadership profile, at the outset at least, is largely located in the small business elite that came up through the ranks of the ANC and state machinery.
Smuts Ngonyama, COPE’s policy chief and a former head of the ANC presidency, launched himself into business through a royal stake in a telecoms empowerment deal.
Another possible face is Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the former deputy president. Her former political adviser, Ayanda Nkuhlu, has rejected claims that either he or Mlambo-Ngcuka are involved in COPE, but Nkuhlu’s brother Andile is one of the key founders and currently interim Eastern Cape COPE leader.
And Moeletsi Mbeki, the brother of the former president, is said to be close to the COPE leadership core.