As a politician and a citizen I am naturally interested to see how - in the run-up to the next election - the ruling party will try to spin its way out of the combined mess of high inflation, escalating interest rates, food insecurity, intolerable levels of crime, electricity shortages, rising fuel costs, xenophobia and the general concerns about service delivery to millions of people. 

It is clear that all these problems have been largely brought about and further exacerbated by policy failures presided over by the ruling party. What is worse, there are no coalition partners the government could blame or at least share the collective responsibility with. 

What is truly worrying is that the very collectivist, corporatist and interventionist approach to the economy and society that has landed us in all the trouble received a standing ovation at the ANC's Polokwane conference last year and is sure to define the ruling party's policies in the future. 

Unburdened by Marxist ideology, we in the IFP have always advocated simple supply-side solutions that stress deregulation, free trade, competitiveness and the use of market mechanisms to cure the problems in everything from health care to education to pensions. 

Does the government ever ask itself why is it that, for example, private healthcare in our country is working whereas its counterpart in the public sector is not? It is obvious that in order to streamline healthcare, we need to infuse the stale unworkable system with at least a whiff of competition. 

We similarly continue to oppose unduly high taxation, particularly the percentage taxation imposed on fuel. High taxation combined produces an overblown state budget which is later consumed by corrupt officials when it comes to profligate government spending. 

The fourteen years of misguided policy speak for themselves: a government devoted to the ANC's traditional virtues lacks the courage, the means and the potential to turn the challenges we face into opportunities.

Dr Lionel Mtshali
Leader of the Official Opposition 

Contact: Dr Lionel Mtshali, 083 256 4902