Persisting NDR policymaking blocking SA’s path to success – IRR

As long as current National Democratic Revolution (NDR) laws remain in place, South Africa “will battle to attract fixed investment, push up the growth rate, or counter the unemployment crisis”.

This is the warning contained in a report published today by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), Enemy of Growth: The Ideology Holding South Africa Hostage. Written by IRR head of policy research Dr Anthea Jeffery, the report summarises and updates her 2023 book on the NDR and South Africa’s Countdown to Socialism.

The report was published via an online webinar yesterday in which Jeffery and Hermann Pretorius, IRR Head of Strategic Communications, discussed:

• NDR goals and how the Expropriation Act and race-based BEE advance them;
• how the ANC is using the Government of National Unity to “defend” the NDR;
• how far the NDR has proceeded in many different spheres; and
• some new NDR policies now in the pipeline.

The NDR is the key to understanding why ANC policies are so destructive, governance is so poor, corruption is so great, and the economy is floundering so badly. It is the key, in short, to comprehending ANC rule since 1994.

The NDR is nevertheless still largely ignored by the commentariat, which limits awareness of its importance. This must change if the country is to jettison the ideology now holding it hostage. Jeffery’s report is part of what is needed to build understanding and break the general silence on the NDR.

Jeffery argues in her report that the ANC’s “(c)ontinued … dominance under the guise of the GNU is likely to witness the introduction of many more NDR interventions. To begin with, the ANC may be able to prevail on many of the smaller parties in the GNU to support additional NDR policies, including the establishment of a new Transformation Fund into which larger enterprises will be obliged to pay 3% of their net profit every year to help BEE businesses.316 In addition, many of the ANC’s ministers will be able to use their regulatory powers to flesh out framework statutes – on EE and preferential procurement, for example – with many harmful ancillary rules.

“At the same time, there are already so many NDR laws on the Statute Book that the NDR is sure to keep doing its damage even without any additional interventions. So long as current NDR laws remain in place, South Africa will battle to attract fixed investment, push up the growth rate, or counter the unemployment crisis. In this situation, the free-market economy will continue to limp along – while the alternative “remedy” of expanding state control and citizen dependency may increasingly be seen as the only viable option.”

The report argues that “(t)he best way to defeat the NDR is to halt its further advance and then start rolling it back with singular determination and considerable speed”.

“What the GNU needs to do, in an echo of President Javier Milei’s actions in Argentina, is to take a chainsaw to the thicket of NDR rules the ANC has already imposed on the country. Sadly, the ANC has so structured the GNU that the coalition government – on which so many South Africans are relying to rescue the country from its growing malaise – has little prospect of attempting this, let alone achieving it.”

To watch today’s webinar, go to: https://irr.org.za/reports/occasional-reports/enemy-of-growth-the-ideology-holding-south-africa-hostage

Media contact: Anthea Jeffery, IRR Head of Policy Research Tel: +27 11 482 7221 ; Email: ajj@irr.org.za

Media enquiries: Michael Morris, Head of Media Tel: +2766 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za