In March 2019, two months before the national and provincial elections, the Capitalist Party of South Africa (ZACP) was launched at the Rand Club. The party’s symbol was a fetching purple cow — but that’s where its appeal ended. Its ideas were to the right of the political spectrum and it got just 15,915 votes, not enough for even a single parliamentary seat.
In the same month, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) launched its political vehicle, the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP). Despite being backed by the country’s largest and most influential (at the time) trade union, the SRWP received only 24,439 votes. The ultra-left outfit also never made it into parliament.
For the election on May 29 2024 there is a plethora of newcomers — and established business has entered the fray, decidedly more directly than in the past.
Former FirstRand chair Roger Jardine’s Change Starts Now (CSN), formed after lengthy discussions, is backed by powerful business players. The activist turned businessman turned politician has stepped out of the boardroom and can now be found at the Alex taxi rank at 5.30am talking to South Africans to try to win votes.
We appreciate it is a very competitive terrain
— Roger Jardine, CSN founder
“It’s been a wonderful journey for me personally … to see South Africans doing the best they can with the little they have. These are citizens I would never have met in a boardroom, they give me a sense of purpose,” he tells the FM.
“They still remain hopeful that their lives would materially change for the better.”
But he entered the arena late, and lacks a base. It could render the entire exercise pointless. He seems undeterred, though.
“We appreciate it is a very competitive terrain.”
While there were stark differences between the Purple Cows and Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim’s Marxist-Leninist fantasy, voters rejected both equally. CSN’s manifesto, launched in Soweto on Monday, is compelling; it would be a pity if the party met the same fate.
Parties generally roll out a wish list of preposterous promises, with no explanation on how it would be funded in South Africa’s limited fiscal space. For example, implementing the EFF’s manifesto (265 pages of promises) would require a budget roughly double the size of the current one; it would require a 100% tax increase across the board, yet its manifesto speaks of decreasing VAT to 14%.
Jardine’s Change Charter realistically envisages a “post-war”-like rebuilding of the country, which would require considerable resources — but the manifesto contains a well-thought-out plan to accomplish this.
“We are like a country after war: our national balance sheet is under excessive strain and our economic and social infrastructure is collapsing. Times of emergency cry out for an emergency response,” he says. “More of the same is not going to help us … The big thing for us was how to fund this response … how to unlock growth … We need a social solidarity fund. For the rich to find common ground with the poor.”
This would involve “short-term pain, with long-term gain”, he says. The proposal is to implement a “wealth tax” of 1.5% per year for three years, an increase in corporate tax by 4.2% for three years, an individual tax increase of 4.5% for three years for all those earning more than R1.8m and a 1% per year charge on retirement funds.
The funds would be ring-fenced and overseen by a panel of independent experts; this money would be governed through legislation and used to invest in infrastructure and grow the economy. Deployed strategically, this money could help to meet the National Development Plan target of 5.2% growth by 2030, Jardine says. (The ANC has conceded it will not meet that target.)
CSN also has strong ideas on fighting crime and corruption — and its manifesto has been endorsed by powerful voices in business such as Sibanye-Stillwater’s outspoken CEO Neil Froneman.
While CSN is clearly well-funded, money alone is not enough to win the hearts and minds of South African voters
“It is one of the most credible plans I have seen for realising South Africa’s potential … I for one would be prepared to pay taxes that are needed to support the reconstruction and growth fund, with real confidence that the money would be used meaningfully to secure a prosperous future,” Froneman told Jardine in a WhatsApp shared with the FM. “Implementation of the CSN charter would build a national unified identity that we can all identify with.”
Still, there is still little chance the party would fare better than the ZACP or the SRWP. Its manifesto launch on Monday was poorly attended. While CSN is clearly well-funded, money alone is not enough to win the hearts and minds of South African voters.
The South African political terrain is tough — the DA can attest to that. Loyal ANC voters would rather stay home and abstain than vote for an alternative. If they do, that alternative has to be present in communities and be recognisable or have other drawcards; former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party, for instance, looks set to appeal to tribalistic, nationalist sentiments. Launching in December, as CSN did, to contest an election five months later, gives the party hardly any time to build familiarity among voters.
The best Jardine’s party can hope for is to win enough votes to form part of a coalition or join the multiparty charter, the pact of opposition parties including the DA, the IFP and ActionSA.
Here, its solid ideas could find a natural political home and perhaps even see the light of day — at least provincially.
Alternatively, Jardine could morph his political outfit into a lobby group to push the government to implement reforms that would begin shifting the needle forward in growing South Africa, instead of reversing it as President Cyril Ramaphosa’s lethargy has done.
Jardine is open to this, should his electoral bid fail: “I do intend to keep my voice in the social and political space.” What was key for him, he says, was to develop a vision, one to take with him into potential coalition or political negotiations.
It is likely that Jardine’s electoral bid is dead in the water, but he could still become a voice of reason in the ears of the politically powerful.
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