How to read the scores
AI analysis assigns a numerical score from -2 to +2 based on the party's stance relative to state control vs. free market, or opposition vs. support for a specific policy reform.
Policy Commitments
Filter by category to explore specific policy proposals.
ActionSA is strongly committed to eradicating corruption and professionalizing the public service through strict meritocracy and independent oversight. They propose banning cadre deployment, establishing an independent Chapter 9 anti-corruption agency with a fixed budget, and decentralizing service delivery responsibilities to competent local governments, holding them accountable for performance.
Key Proposals
- Assign a fixed percentage of the annual national budget towards fighting corruption and establish an independent Chapter 9 anti-corruption agency with authority to investigate and prosecute corruption.
- Ban cadre deployment and ensure all appointments to the civil service are based on merit, not political loyalty, overseen by an independent selection panel.
- Implement an oath of office for senior managers to commit to serving residents and not political parties.
- Reform preferential procurement regulations to reduce corruption and procurement inefficiencies by focusing on efficient service delivery criteria.
- Declare grand corruption as a crime against humanity and redefine corruption to include abuse of political power, price-gouging in public procurement, and gross negligence.
- Implement surveillance and monitoring systems to proactively identify corruption, bribery, and illegal transactions.
- Provide immediate security protection to whistleblowers and ensure journalists are protected from intimidation.
- Strengthen asset forfeiture legislation to recover the proceeds of corruption.
- Modernize government practices through e-governance measures and serviced customer centers.
- Fix underperforming municipalities by placing service delivery needs first, setting minimum acceptable turnaround times for issues, and holding officials accountable for non-performance.
- Gradually and responsibly transfer more service delivery responsibilities, including social development, public transport, and law enforcement, to competent provincial and local governments.
- Reduce the size of the Executive, remove deputy ministers, and limit public wage bill expenditure to reallocate funds to frontline service delivery workers.
ActionSA strongly supports free, state-funded Early Childhood Development (ECD) centers and universal access to quality education from early childhood through tertiary levels. They plan to significantly increase funding for ECD, build more public universities and TVET colleges, improve school infrastructure, and reform the curriculum to focus on foundational skills and vocational training.
Key Proposals
- Ensure universal access to Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes, starting with increased budget allocation and funding for ECD centres.
- Enable Departments of Social Development and Health to ensure ECD centres provide comprehensive services, including nutrition programmes, for children from indigent households.
- Remove bureaucratic hurdles to ECD registration and expand partnerships with the private sector to allocate more resources to ECD centres in indigent areas.
- Implement learner transport programmes and invest in boarding houses to ensure children from remote areas access quality education.
- Eradicate pit toilets and mud schools, providing safe and dignified bathrooms, broadband internet, running water, and electricity in all educational institutions.
- Provide fully funded bursaries to all academically qualifying South African students who cannot afford tertiary education.
- Build more public universities and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges (artisanal, teaching, nursing, agricultural, and policing colleges).
- Reintroduce school inspectors and teacher training colleges, and reduce the teacher-to-pupil ratio to 1:25.
- Ensure 90% of South African learners can read for meaning by the age of 10 by 2035.
- Organize skills development workshops and social events at schools, libraries, and community centres.
- Increase investment in special education for students with learning challenges and special needs, providing specialized support for blind and deaf children.
ActionSA strongly supports a competitive and decentralized energy market, moving away from Eskom's monopoly. They advocate for private sector involvement in electricity generation, the development of self-sustainable microgrids for local communities, and widespread adoption of solar power, including for low-income households. They also plan to restructure Eskom and combat crime and corruption in the energy system.
Key Proposals
- Establish a competitive and decentralized energy market allowing independent power producers and private sector competitors to join electricity generation.
- Introduce a legal framework for private companies to build small, local, self-sustainable microgrids that generate power through renewable sources.
- Incentivize municipalities to decrease their reliance on Eskom by utilizing microgrids powered by renewable energy sources.
- Invest in providing low-income houses with universal access to rooftop solar panels and solar-powered geysers.
- Reduce demand on the national electricity grid by incentivizing the public to install solar panels through tax rebates.
- Ensure critical services like hospitals, clinics, fire stations, and police stations are protected against load shedding.
- Restructure Eskom by separating its electricity generation, transmission, and distribution entities and appointing competent leadership.
- Dismantle Eskom's monopoly by implementing regulatory reforms to allow independent power producers to generate and build new energy generation plants.
- Classify the sabotage of the electricity grid as economic treason and capacitate law enforcement agencies to treat it as such.
- Implement a gradual transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, managed responsibly through a Just Transition framework.
ActionSA prioritizes affordable urban housing through accelerated public housing developments, particularly high-rise buildings in urban centers. They propose reclaiming hijacked and abandoned buildings, using expropriation where appropriate, and releasing them to the private sector for mixed-use development that includes affordable housing units and rental opportunities. They also aim to provide dignified shelter for the homeless using state-owned properties.
Key Proposals
- Accelerate public housing developments in cities, especially high-rise buildings in urban centres, to ensure access to affordable housing close to employment and services.
- Implement a national property release programme to reclaim and repurpose hijacked buildings and unused factories for private sector development.
- Reclaim identified properties using existing legislative frameworks, including expropriation where appropriate.
- Require all private developments on reclaimed land to include affordable housing units and provide affordable rental opportunities.
- Ensure new developments comply with environmental efficiency standards.
- Transform unused and neglected state-owned properties to provide dignified shelter for people struggling with homelessness.
- Identify and release abandoned and hijacked buildings near educational institutions to the private sector for affordable student housing, including rent control measures.
ActionSA strongly advocates for strict border control and efficient enforcement of immigration laws, prioritizing the needs of South Africans. They propose deploying the Border Management Authority, enhancing surveillance, and improving deportation processes for criminals and undocumented foreign nationals, while condemning xenophobia and streamlining legal entry for skilled immigrants and tourists.
Key Proposals
- Improve surveillance and management of South Africa's borders by deploying the Border Management Authority (BMA) to reduce crime and illegal trade.
- Enhance collaboration between SAPS, SANDF, and BMA to ensure borders are monitored effectively.
- Implement technological solutions to better monitor the transnational flow of goods and people.
- Reform the Department of Home Affairs to address structural deficiencies and corruption, ensuring improved and efficient enforcement of immigration regulations.
- Improve deportation processes for foreign nationals found guilty of crimes and undocumented foreign nationals who cannot prove legitimate residency or asylum claims.
- Review the critical skills list to align with economic needs, prioritizing South Africans first, but making it easier for skilled foreign nationals to work where skills gaps exist.
- Simplify work visas for entrepreneurs, professionals, and investors.
- Expand tourism by broadening the list of countries that can enter South Africa for tourism without visas and simplifying e-visa applications.
- Condemn xenophobia and any prejudiced acts of violence committed against foreign nationals.
ActionSA strongly supports expanding social welfare and indigent relief, proposing a Universal Basic Income Stimulus (UBIS) for all adult South Africans and permanent residents, linked to poverty bands. They aim to increase existing social grants, improve SASSA's efficiency, and provide comprehensive support for vulnerable groups, including dignified shelter for the homeless, free sanitary products, and increased access to nutritional food.
Key Proposals
- Introduce a Universal Basic Income Stimulus (UBIS) for all adult South Africans and permanent residents, with monthly cash transfers linked to poverty bands.
- Increase existing social grants alongside the UBIS to protect the most vulnerable in society.
- Implement prioritized institutional reform programmes at SASSA to eliminate corruption, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and improve access to social grants.
- Implement technological solutions, such as mobile payments and e-wallets, for easier access to grant funds.
- Prosecute individuals, businesses, or organizations that exploit, steal from, or financially abuse grant recipients.
- Transform unused and neglected state-owned properties to provide dignified shelter for people struggling with homelessness.
- Ensure ECD centres provide comprehensive services, including nutrition programmes, for children from indigent households.
- Provide free sanitary products to be distributed at schools, clinics, and hospitals.
- Introduce VAT exemptions for essential child-rearing products, including nappies and formula.
- Foster partnerships with food producers, retailers, and food banks to increase access to nutritional food for those struggling with food insecurity.
- Invest in establishing social support groups to provide safe spaces for victims of crime and people struggling with drug and substance addiction.
ActionSA adopts a tough-on-crime approach, advocating for an expanded and professionalized police service with increased visible policing in vulnerable communities. They propose establishing specialized crime units, decentralizing policing functions to provincial departments, and implementing harsher penalties for violent crimes, while also supporting citizens' right to self-defense and stricter border control to combat drug syndicates.
Key Proposals
- Launch a recruitment drive to expand the police service and implement strict physical condition requirements for entry.
- Reduce government expenditure on VIP protection and reallocate funds towards crime prevention and visible policing.
- Establish more specialized crime units focusing on anti-gangsterism, financial crimes, organized crime, economic sabotage, and rural safety.
- Expand police stations and introduce mobile police infrastructure to increase access to police services in remote areas.
- Decentralize more policing functions to competent provincial police departments to empower context-based crime prevention and response.
- Increase penalties for violent crimes (murder, rape, aggravated assault, narcotics manufacturing/trafficking, human trafficking, armed robbery) with longer prison sentences.
- Remove the possibility of parole for those found guilty of multiple rape and murder charges.
- Reform self-defense laws to allow citizens to use appropriate force when their lives are threatened by criminals carrying firearms.
- Make it easier for law-abiding citizens to legally obtain firearms while enforcing stricter sanctions for illegal firearms.
- Strengthen South Africa's borders and mobilize specialized law enforcement units to dismantle drug syndicates.
- Establish specialized Gender-Based Violence (GBV) centers that provide medical, legal, and psychological support to victims.
ActionSA explicitly opposes the current National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, arguing it would destabilize healthcare. Instead, they prioritize fixing the public healthcare system by eliminating corruption, improving management, and increasing investment in primary healthcare facilities, public hospitals, and clinics. They also aim to make private healthcare more accessible and affordable through regulation and expanded benefits.
Key Proposals
- Oppose the implementation of the NHI Bill in its current form.
- Prioritize fixing the public healthcare system by eliminating corruption, streamlining management, and increasing investment into primary healthcare facilities.
- Build more public hospitals and clinics and train/appoint more medical professionals.
- Increase expenditure on frontline healthcare services by reducing administrative expenditure to below 10%.
- Increase security measures for clinics, hospitals, and ambulances to protect healthcare professionals and patients.
- Safeguard hospitals and clinics from experiencing load shedding to ensure services are not compromised.
- Review the private healthcare insurance industry to increase access to affordable comprehensive medical insurance, expand minimum benefits, and improve oversight over profit-driven aspects like price gouging.
- Establish specialized GBV centers that provide medical, legal, and psychological support to victims.
- Increase access to specialized medical support for people with disabilities and ensure public healthcare facilities employ staff competent in sign language communication.
ActionSA aims to foster economic growth and job creation through a 'responsible free-market economy' that strongly supports small businesses and the informal sector. They propose significant state investment in entrepreneurial funding, infrastructure, and public works programs, while also reducing regulatory burdens and offering tax incentives for businesses in urban centers. They also focus on rural economic development and agricultural skills.
Key Proposals
- Invest 30% of all income generated by ActionSA's Opportunity Fund towards entrepreneurial funding.
- Enhance SMME investment by introducing targeted investment vehicles with lower capital gains tax rates.
- Empower the informal economy by investing in economic infrastructure, improving community safety, and launching entrepreneurship mentoring programmes.
- Enforce an increased police presence in informal settlements to prevent crime and maintain safe business environments.
- Transform South Africa's cities into inclusive economic centres by reclaiming hijacked buildings and unused factories for private sector development, providing affordable business rental opportunities.
- Implement a targeted public works programme by investing in projects with high potential for job creation, economic growth, and competitiveness.
- Exempt SMMEs within their first two years of operations from restrictive labour and financial reporting requirements.
- Provide tax incentives for new businesses and international companies establishing operations in cities and simplify municipal processes by removing red tape.
- Invest in road, rail, water, electricity, and fast internet infrastructure that serve rural economies to expand trade.
- Implement programmes in rural communities to fully develop the economic potential of agriculture (including agro-processing), mining, and energy industries.
ActionSA supports land reform by transferring unused state-owned arable land to emerging farmers through long-term leases with an option to purchase. For urban development, they advocate for reclaiming hijacked and abandoned buildings, utilizing expropriation where appropriate, to facilitate private sector development that includes affordable housing units.
Key Proposals
- Transfer unused arable land owned by the state to emerging farmers, providing long-term leases that permit them to buy the land after five years of successful operation.
- Reclaim hijacked and abandoned buildings in South Africa's cities using existing legislative frameworks, including expropriation where appropriate.
- Release identified reclaimed properties to the private sector for development, with a requirement to include affordable housing units.
ActionSA supports state-led investment in upgrading and expanding transport infrastructure, particularly high-volume rail networks and national/provincial roads, to improve economic activity and trade. They advocate for public works programs and public-private partnerships in transport infrastructure, with local governments taking on more responsibility for public transport services.
Key Proposals
- Launch a public works programme to upgrade high-volume rail networks and national and provincial roads.
- Integrate rural roads that serve agriculture and mining sectors with rail networks to improve the transport of goods.
- Invest in the extension of the Sishen-Saldanha and Limpopo-KwaZulu Natal rail lines to increase exports and economic activity.
- Expand and improve seaports in Durban and Richard's Bay to increase local and international trade.
- Utilize South Africa's partnership with SADC and AfCFTA free trade measures to expand sea and rail corridors for trade with East and West Africa.
- Allow the private sector a more involved role in transport infrastructure by reducing legal and regulatory complexity for public-private partnerships.
- Decentralize service delivery, with local governments shouldering government duties related to public transport.
ActionSA's national ideology is centered on 'fixing South Africa' by building an inclusive, prosperous, and unified society based on non-racialism, economic prosperity, social justice, and the rule of law. Their vision, 'The South African Dream,' focuses on internal reform, ethical governance, and economic growth to ensure dignity and opportunity for all citizens, without advocating for radical renaming or explicit Pan-Africanist integration beyond economic cooperation.
Key Proposals
- Achieve 'The South African Dream' by building an inclusive and prosperous society where all citizens live in dignity with equal opportunities.
- Reclaim South Africa's position among leading developing economies by freeing the country from corruption and leading with ethical, competent government.
- Prioritize innovative, decisive, and just economic policies that enable opportunity and empower businesses to create jobs.
- Ensure a world-class education system that provides equal access to quality education for all citizens, starting with universal access to ECD programmes.
- Uphold non-racialism, recognizing that a strong correlation remains between race and socio-economic standing and committing to fix this historical inequality.
- Promote social justice to ensure the most vulnerable in society can live a life of dignity with upward social mobility.
- Entrench respect for the rule of law and ethical leadership in public service, with appointments based on merit and competence.
- Foster community cohesion through education about diversity and heritage, and youth engagement programmes that strengthen community ties.
- Improve South Africa's trade linkages with other African countries to enhance regional prosperity and reduce trade costs.
ActionSA strongly advocates for in-sourced municipal provision of basic services, particularly water and sanitation. They plan to expand and maintain water infrastructure, implement leak detection programs, and ensure equitable water allocation, while also supporting community recycling initiatives. They aim to improve local government service delivery by setting turnaround times for issues like water leaks and holding officials accountable.
Key Proposals
- Launch a nationwide leak identification programme and require municipalities to conduct projects aimed at identifying water leaks.
- Allocate sufficient financial and technical resources to rapidly address water leakages in bulk infrastructure.
- Collect data on water infrastructure and implement a national strategic maintenance plan to address risks.
- Identify strategic areas to develop additional water infrastructure, including dams, reservoirs, treatment plants, and distribution networks.
- Implement insourcing programmes across government departments for core services of a permanent nature, including cleaning and security work, subject to feasibility studies.
- Invest in grey-water distribution systems to ensure drinkable water is predominantly used for human consumption.
- Develop additional water treatment plants and implement measures to safeguard freshwater systems from sewerage and harmful industrial/agricultural run-off.
- Enhance support for the informal waste-picking sector and implement community recycling initiatives to reduce pollution and waste in landfills.
- Fix underperforming municipalities by setting minimum acceptable turnaround times for service delivery issues like pothole repairs and water leaks.