MEDIA STATEMENT BY
THE INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY

IFP TO UNVEIL PLEDGE TO TACKLE POVERTY TODAY

Durban: 20 March 2004

Today the Inkatha Freedom Party launched its Job Creation Pledge, the third of five pledges to be unveiled.
Musa Zondi, IFP National Spokesperson, said:

"The Job Creation Pledge is a vital part of the IFP's common-sense proposals to address HIV/Aids, poverty, unemployment, corruption and crime. These are the five golden policy solutions that will put South Africa on the path to prosperity and success."

"Our proposals on job creation would put the South African economy on a growth trajectory of six percent plus, and will narrow the wide wealth gap between the richest and poorest."

The IFP's Job Creation Pledge

Job creation is the number one priority of the Inkatha Freedom Party. We will provide jobs for South African NOW. We will shift the focus away from ideologies and theories of employment into action and jobs.

Millions of our people are out of work. Their skills and productive labour go unutilised and they are denied their rightful part in building the new South Africa. Unemployment is one of the major causes of crime and is a drain on the resources of the nation. It also traps millions of our people in a cycle of poverty and despair.

The IFP commits itself to moving away from theory into action and pledges to:

• Promote investments in order to create jobs NOW;
• Ensure a free market economy;
• Establish the necessary infrastructure and economic environment to allow industry and commerce to flourish;
• Promote Small Business as the engines of employment growth;
• Ensure the participation of disadvantaged people in the active economy is not limited to a selected few; and
• Implement programmes that will significantly reduce levels of unemployment, which include small business development, agricultural co-operative arrangements, cash-crops for export and public works
  programmes.

Contact: 
Musa Zondi, IFP National Spokesperson, 082 9090-380