People’s Power for Economic Freedom Table of Content
Introduce Prescribed Assets
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- Cut interest rates and abandon inflation targeting
- Encourage labour intensive production
- 7. COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE CREATE A MILLION CLIMATE JOBS DISMANTLE THE MINERAL ENERGY COMPLEX.
- Produce our electricity from wind and solar power.
- Reduce energy use in homes and buildings
- Produce our food through organic small-scale agro ecology
- Protect our water, soil and biodiversity resources.
- Our oceans need to be protected
- CHAPTER 4
- Background: Contrasting Pre and Post-apartheid Judiciary and Penal Systems
Introduce Prescribed Assets Government must direct the huge assets of all financial services towards investment in the productive sectors of the economy, especially those sectors that have high employment multipliers. The financial services industries shall by law required to invest no less than 10% of their asset base in a government fund dedicated towards social investment and job creation.
High interest rates cut off job creation by attracting money into the speculative sectors of the economy rather than the productive sectors where jobs are created. Reducing interest rates would lead to greater job creation and make it easier for firms to access credit to expand their businesses. This would require the abandonment of inflation targeting which can only be maintained through interest rate increases. Higher levels of inflation pose no threat to jobs and consumers, especially if more and more people have decent work. Price control on basic goods foodstuffs and rent would be put in place to protect the poor.
Thousands of additional jobs could be created if labour intensive industries were targeted for growth and protected from international competition along with the removal of tax incentives promoting capital intensive expenditures. These include agriculture, agro-processing, furniture, wood and paper, accommodation and transport and community servicing. By targeting these sectors through various incentives and protections large number of new jobs can be created in these sectors as well as creating jobs throughout the economy. 6. DEFEND OUR JOBS Thousands of jobs can be saved by:
7. COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE CREATE A MILLION CLIMATE JOBS DISMANTLE THE MINERAL ENERGY COMPLEX. Climate change will exacerbate poverty in our country because, at the very least, it will reduce water availability and food security, and increase general insecurity through floods, droughts, and forced migration. It is critical that we stop the advance of climate change and build our defences against its impacts. South Africa is the 12th biggest carbon polluter in the world and the largest in Africa. To prevent climate change becoming an even greater catastrophe, we urgently need to reduce our carbon pollution, as must other big polluters across the world. This, together with building our defences against the impacts of climate change will require that we do many things. We must use our wealth in natural resources in a climate friendly way to create jobs and livelihoods. We can and must
This will take government regulation and international agreement. It will also take a great deal of work, and this means many new jobs. Real solutions to climate change demand that we reduce our use of fossil fuels, and it is possible to do this without compromising our quality of life – throughout the history of capitalism, industry has always changed in response to new technologies and environmental conditions. Shifting away from fossil fuels will result in the decline and eventual replacement of some industries, particularly energy intensive industries and mining. If we plan and manage this well, workers will be protected. If we rely on markets for the solutions, workers will pay the price – we already see this in gold, coal and other mining related industries as a result of mining becoming more capital intensive. Climate jobs are decent jobs that cut the emissions of greenhouse gasses, such as from burning coal and strengthen communities resilience to deal with the impact of climate jobs. Solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy are not just clean forms of energy but they provide many more jobs than currently exist in generating energy from coal or petrol. By building a public transport system, extending train services on a massive scale and busses we can take polluting vehicles off the road, create jobs and stop climate change. Similarly we need to refit houses and building to make them energy efficient as well as ensuring every building as a solar geyser and solar panels. Imagine the new industries and jobs that can be created by this effort. At the same time we will be dealing with the climate crisis. This is why we call these jobs climate jobs. Linking the issue of climate change to jobs and especially the possibility for creating one million climate jobs through immediate and coordinated steps to shift to a low carbon, labour intensive economy can galvanise our nation. More importantly it can also reorient government policy in relation not just to climate change but in relation to the economy and social needs as a whole. Developing a new energy system, building a mass public transport system. Retrofitting our building and homes, would begin the process of diversifying our economy from its current dependence on mining. New local industries would stimulate others and in combination with a mass housing programme and appropriate industrial policies and import regulations, SA would overcome the Mineral Energy Complex that has been so disastrous for jobs and the economy. Mining would provide the infrastructure for this new low carbon wage led and equitable development path, rather than repatriated profits for foreign predatory TNCs. We believe government should take the following steps to address simultaneously the economic and environmental crisis we are facing:
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The marine economy can be another key component of an alternative low carbon, wage led, equitable development path. This will require a break with the idea that the oceans and the coastal areas of our country are just additional natural resource to be ruthlessly exploited for profit and the creation of a new bourgeoisie allied to multinational shipping, fishing and oil/gas corporations. Just as the idea of the green economy poses as a new frontier for capitalist conquest so the dominant idea in respect of the oceans and the “blue economy” is presented as a new source for the absorption of over-accumulated capital. Already reports report suggest that almost 50% of our marine resources are fully exploited. A further 15% of marine resources are overexploited. Of equal concern is the number of species in which the current stock status is uncertain. Currently fisheries play a critical role in providing direct and indirect livelihoods for over 140, 000 people in South Africa. Fish protein is also a critical protein source for many of the traditional fishing communities along the South African coastline, many of whom are considered food insecure. The successful roll out and implementation of a new small-scale fisheries policy will be critical in ensuring the livelihoods and food security of many of these fishing dependent communities. Sustainable fishing based on the rights of small-scale artisanal fishers can provide livelihoods for 500,000 fishers. This requires reversing the currently conceived quota system that enriches foreign owned and BEE corporations. As opposed to these big corporations artisanal fishers have a long history of sustainable fishing allowing for the replenishing of stocks.
The government has undertaken a massive infrastructure programme in support of the Minerals and Energy Complex including the upgrade of major ports. The idea is to facilitate its export led growth strategy by expanding the existing capacity of South African ports to export mostly unprocessed mineral and agricultural goods, and to import manufactures helter-skelter no matter the damage to our economy. Instead of these mega projects such as COEGA (‘the ghost on the coast’) and now the proposed R250 billion South Durban port-petrochemical expansion (universally opposed by the local affected communities), which are destined to be white elephant projects, the construction of smaller harbours to enable local economic development driven by small scale fishers and boat builders promise many more sustainable jobs, with important stimulants to downstream industries. South Africa has failed to position itself as a major ship-building and repair centre. Given our access to locally produced inputs such as iron, steel, wood, etc. significant job multipliers can result from state support for ship and boat-building, but we can never compete with Korean and Chinese firms now building ‘post-panamax’ vessels that can carry 24 000 containers. Our boat-building must be of an appropriate scale, and contribute to fishing, recreation, alternative energy (such as tidal energy) and research activities that benefit the masses of South Africans, not the parasitic BEE bourgeoisie and their corporate allies.
The impact of climate change and pollution is causing great harm to the oceans leading to acidification of the oceans and threatening fish stocks and livelihoods. The sustainable use of the oceans and coastal regions can be an important source of decent work creation. As important in creating and sustaining decent work is the many jobs that can be sustained in rehabilitating our rivers and oceans as well as protecting them from the fishing transnationals. By factoring in the substantial sea level rise caused by climate change, in relation to all our coastal activities, we can build our infrastructure properly, and contribute to the ‘Million Climate Jobs’. Because of climate change, and because of the high risk associated with offshore oil drilling (especially in the dangerous Agulhas Current from Richards Bay to Cape Town), we must rethink the government’s potentially suicidal granting of oil and gas exploration licenses to companies such as ExxonMobil, Sasol and other notorious polluters who regularly show their disregard to people and nature. CONCLUSION The essence of what is argued here is that the there is a need to develop the productive forces in order to improve the living conditions of the people. The mechanisms proposed in this document constitute the essence and key components of how productive forces can be developed to realise full employment in South Africa. The key towards development of the productive forces is discontinuation of private ownership of strategic sectors of the economy, particularly the natural resources sector which will serve as key supplier of industrial inputs and banks which should provide developmental finance for labour absorptive industrial expansion. CHAPTER 4 Justice and Correctional Services Introduction South Africa has inherited a security industry that was geared and organised towards the maintenance of White minority rule, suppression of freedom and the perpetuation of limited freedom of knowledge and choice, in order to mask the crimes of the state. Therefore the security industry was both segregated and militarised. It was also harsh and ruthless towards the Black majority, especially Africans. Post 1994, both justice and correctional services were de-militarised, but they remained an industry in which in true capitalist fashion, profit remained an activity embedded within the system. For example within justice, the number of awaiting trail prisoners (ATP) or remand prisoners, increased as poor people could not afford bail as low as a thousand rands, while the rich exercised their right of choice as whether they wished to wait trial at home or in prison (meaning they could afford bail). Last year former Minister Ndebele said “on average, 15 to 20% of awaiting-trial detainees were in custody because they could not afford bail”. 1 Poor people’s choice of a lawyer was also curtailed as most were forced to rely on state defence lawyers and legal aid, while the rich could select a lawyer of choice and pay accordingly. This situation has given rise to the criticism that the country’s justice is designed by the rich, for the rich. Another legacy of the post-1994 justice system has been the high-sentencing characteristic of the abolition of the death sentence, which gave sway to sentences very high sentences in order to justify deterrence. The critics refer to this as abusing sentencing by using it as a crime deterrence, an opposite of the concept of just deserts. Regarding Correctional Services, the biggest criticism has been the ensuing overcrowding, estimated at “133% on June 8, 2013 at 02:29pm”,2 resulting from thousands of ATP and long-sentences serving prisoners. The current limit for ATP or remand prisoners is two years, itself a serious problem as it is too long to keep someone behind bars before the actual court case. Overcrowding has in turn led to conditions of chaos, where rehabilitation is difficult ad slow, while gang violence thrives as inmates exploit this cramped environment which lacks adequate security and order. It is a vicious cycle of violence in which inmates are coerced into gangs in order to attain protection from both staff (warders) and fellow inmates There are also issues of repeat-offending, or recidivism, obviously resultant from lack of thoroughgoing rehabilitation programmes. Not all prisoners work, in fact “many inmates are kept locked up for 23 hours a day, with only an hour outside their cell. Some prisons go into lockdown as early as 3 or 4 p.m., leaving prisoners cooped up for 12 hours or more at a stretch”.3 Not all of them vote too. The community service leg of the department is also not fully functional, so is the parole and community re-integration process. Background: Contrasting Pre and Post-apartheid Judiciary and Penal Systems The resultant a problem with the South African Justice and Penal Systems has been its methodology and premise, in that is has always been based on the traditional colonial systems. “In 1911, after the creation of the Union of South Africa, the Prisons and Reformatories Act consolidated earlier colonial legislation, and strict segregation was enforced throughout the system. In 1959, major new legislation governing the prison service was passed by the National Party government. The Prisons Act reiterated the rules for segregation in prisons, in line with the policy of apartheid being enforced in all parts of South African life”.4 Sentencing was used as punishment, not as just deserts, like the common ‘warehousing’ method applicable to most maximum security offenders. It is a type of sentencing that completely strips the inmate of any inter-personal contact, rehabilitation and post-release programme. Therefore sentences were high and prisons full to overcrowd. For example during apartheid the minimum sentence for violent crimes involving house breaking and theft (HBT), robbery with aggravated circumstances, murder, etc., was nine to fifteen years. As a result prisoners spent years upon years behind bars, exposed to ‘hardening’ and gang initiation. Generally the correctional service warders abused their powers, and much violence ensued. Moreover, the apartheid government was estranged to any concept of constitutional democracy because the military overruled the rule of law. Security was defined as state-centred, viz. protecting the apartheid state in its undemocratic quest to protect white minority rule at all cost, including fighting illegal secret wars, assassination of activists, illegal detentions, etc. The judiciary was not independent, as it bent according to the dictates of the state-centred security institution. In the aftermath of 1994, the country saw the introduction of the Constitutional Court, and the separation of powers between the Executive (President and Cabinet) and the Legislative (the National Council of Provinces). With its mandate to enforce and uphold the Constitution, and by default, the human rights, which became the buzz word for the post-1994 Republic as enshrined in the Constitution; the Constitutional Court remains the highest authority, binding on all organs of government, including the parliament and the presidency. This court can declare an Act of Parliament null and void if it conflicts with the constitution. However this introduction has not fundamentally changed the justice system, and by default, the penal system too. For example, the post-apartheid drive for democracy should have been the transformation of the repressive and secretive state-centred security, upheld and protected by justice and other related organs like the police, the prisons, defence and intelligence. Correctly so, this was the demonstrated political will, on the surface at least, because instituions were established to protect constitutional democracy. Such institutions, referred to as Chapter 9, include The Public Protector, The South African Human Rights Commission, The Commission For Gender Equality, The Auditor General, Electoral Commission, Public Service Commission, Financial And Fiscal Commission, Pan South African Language Board, Independent Commissions Authority Of South Africa, Commission For The Promotion And Protection Of The Rights Of Cultural, Religious And Linguistic Communities, all gave hope that the state would no longer be able to abuse its powers and dictate to the judiciary. There was hope and euphoria, until the Adhoc Committee on the Review of Chapter Institutions, chaired by Professor K. Asmal, then a Member of Parliament (MP), pointed the country to an anomaly in 2007. The Committee found that the Chapter 9 Institutions “followed different and inconsistent funding processes,”5 via other state departments, and warned that this could be a potential source of compromise; it rendered the institutions dependent on the executive. Its recommendation was categorical, “these institutions’ budgets should be part of parliament’s Budget Vote to ensure independence from the executive, so that their oversight over the executive could be enhanced”.6, Professor Asmal’s recommendations have not been implemented, and it includes this current fifth parliament. For example 41% of the posts on the Public Protector’s official structure remain unfunded. Moreover there remains a vast disparity between what she budgeted for 2014/2015, i.e. R300 million, and what she was finally allocated, i.e. R217 million. She is on record stating that her core business is affected by this, yet business continued as usual. Conclusively then, while the apartheid government overtly abused state power and channelled security to protect the state’s illegal wars and at times unconstitutional actions, the current African National Congress (ANC) has established mechanisms to hold the state accountable, and institutions to protect the constitution. Yet at the same time, it has managed to exercise its hold on these institutions by curtailing their financial independence, thereby subjecting them to Executive authority. This could explain why despite strides forward, it has always been one forward and two backwards, when it comes to the justice and penology matters in this country. The system remains punitive, with high sentencing, bail-based release or remand custody for ATP, leading to overcrowding, prison violence, prison gangsterism, prisoner-hardening and high recidivism. One could almost argue that there is no other way, that this remains the only tried and tested judicial and penal system. On the contrary, there are several alternatives.
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