Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - January 25, 2009
Mpumelelo Mkhabela, mkhabelam@sundaytimes.co.za

-- UDM: Return of the Scorpions; independent judicial commission of inquiry into the arms deal

-- IFP: Declare HIV/Aids a national emergency and escalate roll-out of antiretroviral drugs

-- ANC: More police; publicly funded national health insurance system within next five years

Here's what the latest batch of party manifestos offers you:

COPE: High moral standards; improved transparency in awarding of government tenders

The Congress of the People wants the function of the Independent Electoral Commission broadened to include a public register containing the assets and any criminal convictions of people aiming to contest elections.

In its election manifesto, COPE promises to introduce policies to compel the candidates of political parties to publicly declare their criminal records and assets.

This is among several measures the new party promises to implement to eradicate corruption and mismanagement in government. Others include:

-- Ensuring that all candidates declare that they are tax compliant before election day;

-- Strengthening the procedures for reporting of assets by elected representatives and cabinet ministers;

-- Improving and strengthening legislation to protect whistle-blowers;

-- Ensuring there are mechanisms governing the conduct of civil servants and staff of state-owned enterprises;

-- Protecting civil servants from intimidation and victimisation by public representatives and ministers; and

-- Improving and strengthening transparency in the awarding of government tenders.

The manifesto seeks to position COPE as an anti-corruption party whose leadership would act impeccably in the public's interest.

"COPE will present SA with the leadership that is committed to serving the people, protecting and preserving public resources and assets, and ensuring that corruption, waste and mismanagement are eradicated," the manifesto states.

The manifesto, launched in Port Elizabeth yesterday , also says: "COPE will work to ensure clean government, free of corruption and nepotism, and a leadership that upholds high moral standards, committed to serving the people of SA."

On crime, the manifesto promises to re-establish the elite crime-busting unit Scorpions, which is in the process of being disbanded.

Specialised units would be established to combat identified priority crimes, including those committed against women and children.

In addition, COPE promises to be harsh on criminals by introducing mandatory life sentences to habitual perpetrators of serious crimes.

Meanwhile, chief executive of financial services firm BJM and COPE leader Andile Mazwai has blamed recent depreciation of the rand on the "rhetoric" of the ANC and its alliance partners.

Speaking at a COPE fund-raising dinner in Port Elizabeth on Friday, Mazwai, who is on the COPE executive, said the party has rescued the country from the prospects of a one-party state. "The risk premium has been reduced," he said.

ANC: More houses, police and nurses

In its election manifesto unveiled on January 10, the ANC promises to build more and better subsidised houses for the poor.

The ruling party said it would raise the cut-off age for R220-a-month child support grants to 18 years from 15. The ANC also promises to:

-- Scrap fees at 60% of schools and introduce incentives for maths and science teachers.

-- Feed all poor pupils at school free of charge, and provide water, toilets and power to all schools.

-- Hire more nurses and police, improve their salaries, and reopen teacher training colleges;

-- Introduce a publicly funded national health insurance system within the next five years;

-- Accelerate and expand investment in social and industrial infrastructure to boost the economy;

-- Extend insurance to cover more unemployed adults;

-- Boost the fight against HIV/Aids and renovate more hospitals;

Build more sports facilities for poor schools and make sport compulsory;

-- Provide more money for land reform and more support for emerging farmers; and

-- Intensify the fight against corruption.

UDM: 'We will bring back the Scorpions'

The United Democratic Movement has promised a corruption-free South Africa and clean governance if elected to power.

During its manifesto launch in Johannesburg yesterday, the party also vowed to bring back the Scorpions, which is on the verge of being incorporated into the SA Police Service.

Addressing 5000 party delegates at Nasrec, UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said: "You can trust the UDM to swiftly eradicate corruption as demonstrated by our track record over the years of consistently and fearlessly exposing corruption wherever and whenever we find it."

Outlining his party's manifesto on clean governance, Holomisa said a UDM government would bring back the Scorpions as an independent investigation unit with a clear mandate to investigate and prosecute corruption and organised crime.

It would also call for an independent commission of inquiry into the arms deal as a matter of urgency, noting that since the signing of the "dubious and ill-conceived" multibillion-rand deal, there had been a systematic slide into a moral morass.

"Despite repeated reassurances to the contrary, senior ANC members have been implicated and convicted, or still face prosecution," Holomisa said.

The UDM would also focus on crime, growing the economy, creating jobs, environmental protection, education and a reliable healthcare system for all.

Like COPE, the UDM said it would reform the electoral system and allow for the president of the country to be elected separately.

The manifesto says that if the UDM came to power, it would call for an economic indaba where it would propose the reassessment of spending priorities in consultation with all stakeholders.

"A vast amount of money is being wasted on travelling by councillors, provincial government officials, MPLs, MECs, MPs and ministers; in many cases these are ill-disguised shopping holidays and serve no purpose," it says.

The party also said there was a need for strong government intervention to ensure functioning roads, electricity, water irrigation and reticulation to ensure economic growth.

On education, the UDM supports free education from primary school to grade 12.

On healthcare, it said it would provide proper and immediate responses to major health risks, and increase spending on HIV/Aids.

IFP: 'Build on good, stop the rot'

The Inkatha Freedom Party will ban taverns near schools and prevent pupils from having abortions without parental consent in a bid to address South Africa's moral challenge.

These are among the policy proposals contained in the IFP's 28-page manifesto for the coming elections, which it will unveil in Johannesburg today.

The party says it will crack down on teachers and pupils involved in sex and alcohol or drug abuse at school. It will also introduce free education up to grade 12, more affordable tertiary education and either "radically review or discard" Outcomes-Based Education.

HIV/Aids will be declared a "national emergency" and the party will escalate the roll-out of antiretroviral drugs to the original target of 278000 new patients each year.

The manifesto focuses on interventions in key areas to "build on the good achieved to date and deal with the evil and the insufficient in our society".

"We want to make things better, fix what is broken and stop the rot, not reinvent the wheel," states the manifesto, which feeds from the IFP's "listening campaign" that was conducted over the past year among urban and rural communities to identify key areas of intervention proposed by ordinary people.

The manifesto also advocates a mixture of state intervention and changes to labour law to boost economic growth and fight poverty.

On law and order, the IFP wants to bring back the Scorpions and introduce mandatory minimum sentencing for a wider range of crimes, and it also proposes hard labour sentences for certain categories of crime.

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