POLITICAL NEWS - Andile Mngxitama’s party Black First Land First (BLF) appears to have kicked into elections campaign mode, releasing its first elections flier ahead of national and provincial polls later this year.

It will be the party’s first stab at gaining power, with Mngxitama telling The Citizen: “We want to have a percentage that can guarantee two-thirds [of the vote] is available to the ANC [allowing constitutional amendment] so that it has no excuses to implement Radical Economic Transformation (RET).”

He added: “The polls say the ANC may get 50% to 55%. We are aiming at no less than 10% … We want to be king makers to force the ANC to implement RET.”

To attract support, the often controversial party has not held back on making ambitious promises, including that there will be “free houses, electricity, water, health care, education, and transportation” for students, the disabled and the elderly.

They also promise land to “all who need it”.

Perhaps most uniquely, they declare that “no one must be unemployed”, but that those who happen to find themselves unemployed will be assured of receiving R5,000 a month.

Currently, South Africa does not offer universal unemployment protection – aside from the Unemployment Insurance Fund – so this would be a new item to add to Treasury’s national balance sheet.

The current number of unemployed South Africans is estimated at about 6.2 million, which would mean the BLF would need to find about R372 billion each year to fund its dole payments, amounting to about 8% of the country’s GDP.

Currently, South Africa will be spending about R193.4 billion in total on social welfare programmes this year.

Under a BLF government, this amount will also apparently increase dramatically, with the current child grant payment increasing to R2,000 per month from its current R410, and the pension amount shooting up to R5,000 from its current value of around R1,700 per month.

The BLF is guaranteeing “full employment” for all graduates too, along with “business support”, a home and school garden at every property and the teaching of “respect for elders and love for blacks”.

The South African government already spends more each year than it collects in tax (currently sitting at more than R1.2 trillion a year), meaning it has to turn to world markets for loans.

Treasury recently said it had increased borrowing by R25.1 billion in the last financial year to a total of R246 billion.

The country’s net debt was expected to be R2.28 trillion in 2017/18, or 48.6% of GDP, increasing to R3.03 trillion, or 52.2% of GDP, in 2020/21. Net debt is expected to stabilise at 53.2% in 2023/24.

However, the BLF appears to have pre-empted criticism that its welfare-centric approach to governance would require several hundred billion, or even trillions, more than government currently collects in revenue to be sustainable.

They claim “white monopoly capital steals over R100 billion annually” and “there is over R20 trillions [sic] worth of minerals underground”.

Read more on the Caxton publication, The Citizen.