POVERTY

First things first. The IFP has always seen the gut-wrenching poverty, which daily strangles millions of South Africans, as the underlying cause of social strife and disease in our society. Although abject poverty is largely confined to rural areas, it is no stranger to urban settings, including Johannesburg. The IFP views poverty as an individual's condition. The task of its eradication must therefore count on improving one person's plight at a time. The IFP advocates a comprehensive strategy that shifts the drive for economic development from the government and the public sector onto the individual and the private sector initiative. In doing so, the IFP is challenging the ANC's implicit assumption about the role of government which renders the public sector all-powerful with the capacity to intervene and contribute positively in every nook and cranny of our society.

JOB CREATION

The best the ruling party can say for itself is that it has achieved jobless growth. Contrary to its empty claims about job creation, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been shed since 1994. It remains an uphill struggle to find a job on the labour market that is not accommodating new entrants, alone tackling structural unemployment. The IFP has consistently opposed inflexible labour laws that make it near impossible to fire redundant employees and thus discourage employers from hiring new workforce. The IFP advocates policies that redirect the bulk of empowerment initiatives from the BEE to more broad-based measures, namely a vigorous promotion of informal sector-style entrepreneurial flair which, in the Johannesburg context, has plenty of potential in exploiting local tourism.

CRIME

Let us be absolutely clear - the levels of crime in South Africa are intolerable. Crime is perpetrated by criminals who feel encouraged by the fact that the rest of us, beginning with our government, are not serious about it. We underestimate the power of respect in families and in communities. We mislead criminals with our double-faced attitude towards the law. When respect for the law disappears and powerful people or groups can break the law with impunity, then the universal rule of law inevitably collapses. When the outward form of the law is maintained, but the respect for the law is gone and people feel only the need to make a pretense of being ruled by the law while ignoring its spirit, then the rule of law becomes purely procedural. The IFP advocates the return to a universal rule of law for everyone to abide by. We have to do away with double standards for the privileged few and the unprivileged many.

SERVICE DELIVERY

The national cabinet, we are told, has devoted more than 60 percent of the state budget to local and provincial government. This may well be a waste of money when half of all municipalities are dysfunctional, councils have failed to collect R40 billion in arrears, and billions are left unspent in provincial coffers each year.

An Afrobarometer survey, published last year during a conference on local government in Durban, shows that South Africans have a generally negative perception about local government and service delivery. Too many individuals are humiliated and experience poor service. Instead of the current bureaucratic state, the IFP envisages an enabling state that commissions the provision of basic services from a range of providers rather than provides these services by itself. Ours is a new entrepreneurial state that preaches decentralized management and calls for an expanded role of the private sector in service delivery.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

When the ANC campaigners knock on your door to tell you how much they care about you and your community, tell them the truth: they don't. There has been a palpable sense of civil discontent in many communities. As a local government consultant recently observed in the media, "residents have grown sick of watching well-paid municipal managers and mayors drive past in luxury cars while they wait for water from a stand-pipe at the end of the street". The IFP is not campaigning for an entrepreneurial state because it worships market forces or because it likes to sound businesslike. The IFP does this because it cares about our people. We care more than our professionally compassionate critics from the labour unions, who have been persistently blocking structural reform of local government.

HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is the most serious socio-economic crisis South Africans have ever faced. This disease can only be defeated against a backdrop of hope. The fatalism which has permeated the HIV/AIDS debate in South Africa, beginning at the top and filtering down to all governmental levels, must be overcome first. The IFP will bring prevention and treatment where the government interacts with people closest: to all clinics, hospitals, care centres, schools, and sports and recreational facilities under local government jurisdiction. The IFP will direct all local government-sponsored counseling, testing, assistance, legal support and targeted campaigning to make HIV/AIDS a major priority. This approach is short on bureaucracy and big on action.

HOUSING

The IFP remains skeptical about the government's commitment to eradicate shacks by 2014. This may well be yet another broken promise in the making. The IFP advocates a more holistic and sustainable approach to government housing that ensures that the individuals who are allocated housing units will be able to afford and maintain them. The IFP also promotes wholesale revitalization of hostels making them more habitable as family units.

BILLING SYSTEM

Under the ANC control, the local government has seen many blackouts, not least electrical. These are as much a result of mismanagement as poor accounting. The IFP advocates a more stringent accounting and a more transparent management of funds. The increased deposits that are now being demanded of Johannesburg residents to ensure the smooth running of municipal services are likely to finance inefficiency and red tape.

CORRUPTION

The IFP cannot overemphasise the need to wipe out corruption in order to run municipalities effectively. The IFP will act quickly and decisively should any of our councillors be found guilty of corruption. The IFP will create an early warning system to detect malfunctioning councils and dismiss councillors who do not attend council and community meetings.