ANC lifted DA policies for NDP: Numsa

The ANC has used the DA's economic policies for its National Development Plan (NDP) for the country, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) says.

"After a thorough analysis, the [central committee] came to the extremely disturbing conclusion that significant and strategic parts of the NDP were directly lifted from DA policy documents," Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said in Johannesburg.

"The reading of the documents is shocking, and that is what we are going to reveal to the public."

Jim was briefing the media on the outcomes of its central committee meeting.

He said in spite of some impressive announcements by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, the "fundamental flaw" in his Budget was that it was based on the NDP.

After going through the more than 400 pages of the NDP document it came as a shock to discover this, said Jim.

At the African National Congress' conference in Mangaung in December, delegates in commissions would have been given shortened versions of the document for their discussions and those who prepared it would have worked hard to lobby support for it.

The working class was outnumbered when it came to adopting it, he said.

Jim said Numsa had not yet formally raised this with the ANC but planned to do so in the future and also planned strikes over it.

Its major problem with the NDP was that it protected power relations of colonialism, leaving them intact.

This was a "rightwing" deviation from the Freedom Charter that would bring the country closer to an implosion among the poor if not contested, Numsa said.