PARLIAMENTARY
BULLETIN
19 August 1996
PAGAD
PAGAD - People Against Gangsterism and Drugs - catapulted the issue
of violence in the Western Cape into the international headlines, with
their public execution of Rashaad Staggie, leader of the Hard Living Gang.
While the ANC sympathises with the concerns of PAGAD, we condemn the actions
of individuals or small groups within PAGAD who are taking the law into
their own hands.
The ANC Government is tough on crime and strong on law and order. The
National Crime Prevention Strategy was launched by the Government to encourage
community groups to work together with the police to fight crime, within
the criminal justice system. Mass community groups like PAGAD could make
a positive contribution to fighting crime, but the actions of some elements
in PAGAD in undertaking and inciting violence are only making the situation
worse.
Other parties have used the PAGAD issue to score cheap points against
the ANC and pursue their own political agendas. We must expose the difference
between NP fiction and the real truth.
Fiction The National Party says there are too few police and
blames ANC Minister Mufamadi.
FACT There are 13,000 police in the Western Cape, but only 400 were
deployed in greater Mitchell`s Plain, to cover 1.5m people. Minister Mufamadi
had ordered that police should be redeployed to where there is greatest
need, but was ignored by the NP Provincial Government. This is a cynical
campaign by the NP for its own Cape Town police force. The correct strategy
is not the mechanical increase in the number of police, but the transformation
of policing to involve communities.
Fiction The National Party in the Western Cape claims the
police have too few powers.
FACT The police have the same powers as they always had -
except torture. Nowhere else - even in Gauteng, where crime is at its worst
- are the complaints as loud. This is just another cheap political dig
by a cheap political party.
Fiction The National Party claims the ANC is soft on crime.
FACTS The ANC is tough on crime and tough on the causes of
crime. It is tough on gangsters and drug-traffickers, but will also be
tough on those who take the law into their own hands.
The province with the worst record of communities taking the law
into their own hands is in the Western Cape - where the National Party
is in charge.
The way to fight crime is for communities to help the police to identify
and prosecute criminals within the framework of law, not for people to
take the law into their own hands
The National Crime Prevention Strategy shows how the ANC Government
is actively working with communities and community police forums to fight
crime.
The ANC is tough on the causes of crime - we are fighting the poverty,
misery and injustice that is the legacy of five decades of the National
Party in government.
While the ANC is cracking down on crime, the NP encouraged the gangs
to flourish.
KEY INDICATORS SHOW ANC HAS ECONOMY ON THE RIGHT TRACK
The economic stagnation of the 1980s under the National Party has ended,
and the ANC has now got the economy on the right track. This week`s Budget
Vote gives ANC Members the chance to highlight the significant economic
gains that the ANC has already made, including:
- returning the economy to sustainable long-term growth
- reducing the budget deficit, reforming the tax system and reprioritising
public spending - reducing inflation and easing the balance of payments constraint
- opening the economy to international competition and securing access
to new markets.
Key Indicators
Key economic indicators reinforce the ANC`s achievements:
Under the ANC, inflation is at its lowest for almost a quarter
of a century.
The ANC has kept inflation stable and below seven per cent since September
1995.
The last time it was that low under the National Party was in 1972.
Under the ANC, over a quarter of a million more people are in
work than when the National Party was in power.
Employment was 5.23m in December 1995 - a rise of 282,000, or six per
cent, on the 4.95m employed under the National Party in March 1994.
Under the ANC, the budget deficit is at its lowest for four years.
The budget deficit has been reduced from 8.5 per cent of GDP in 1992/94
under the National Party to six per cent in 1995/96.
Under the ANC, growth is at its highest for seven years.
Annual GDP growth at factor incomes has been climbing steadily since
the ANC took over, from -2.4 per cent in 1992 to 2.8 per cent in 1995.
Consolidating ANC Achievements - The Macro-Economic Framework
The Macro-Economic Strategy for growth, employment and redistribution
aims to consolidate those gains and further strengthen the economy, to:
- increase economic growth to six per cent
- create 270,000 jobs a year up to the year 2000, and 400,000 a year
thereafter - reduce the budget deficit to three per cent of GDP.
To achieve these aims, the Government will:
- continue to target inflation and the budget deficit
- continue to relax exchange controls
- continue to lower tariff barriers to reduce input prices
- use tax incentives to encourage investment
- renew the focus on budget reform to strengthen the redistributive thrust
of spending - speed up the restructuring of state assets and expand infrastructure
- promote a flexible collective bargaining system and strengthen the
training levy.
