EFF moots Scandi-style state wealth fund, eyes petroleum sector

26 June 2019 - 07:48 By Andisiwe Makinana
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The EFF's Floyd Shivambu during the parliamentary debate on the state of the nation address.
The EFF's Floyd Shivambu during the parliamentary debate on the state of the nation address.
Image: Parliament of RSA via Twitter

EFF chief whip Floyd Shivambu has revealed the party's legislative agenda for the new parliament and it's a long list of economic reforms which may put the ANC in a tight spot in the light of policy differences in the governing party.

Shivambu listed a number of bills he said the EFF will be tabling in parliament, specifically aimed at bringing changes to the economic sector and in the face of what he called the ANC government's “directionlessness”.

Among the bills the EFF will draft are the SA Reserve Bank Amendment Bill, which he said will make sure that private ownership of the reserve bank is discontinued, joining 90% of central banks in the world.

Shivambu said he will also table “a proper” Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act to put clear conditions on what should be the exposure of the state in terms of ownership of new petroleum and mineral projects.

The EFF, which has championed the debate on tax avoidance since its arrival in parliament in 2014, will also table an anti-tax avoidance bill that will deal with the question of base erosion and illicit financial flows. Shivambu said despite commitments being made by the ANC government to deal with the matter, there has been no one with the courage to come up with clear legislation to deal with base erosion.

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He said the EFF will finalise the process of having a state-owned bank and also table legislation on the insourcing of all government workers.

The aim was to bring an end to the tendering process.

Shivambu said a sovereign wealth fund needed to be created so that even when the foreign direct investment that Ramaphosa is working on, is delivered, the state could match the foreign direct investment rand-for-rand in terms of investments.

The EFF will draft a bill on the creation of a sovereign wealth fund and model it around the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, which, he said, in the current financial year contributed an equivalent of R500bn to Norway's fiscus.

Shivambu rubbished Ramaphosa's state of the nation address (Sona) as directionless. “The theme of the Sona address by the president was on dreams. The synonyms of dreams are in the first category, illusions and hallucinations, and in the second category is imaginations and aspirations.

“We will determine in which category does this dream of the president fall in,” he said.

Ramaphosa reaffirmed the national development plan [NDP] in his speech last Thursday. Shivambu scoffed at this as well, saying the NDP was off the rails. “If it was the illusional train that he speaks about, it is not a bullet train, it is a coal train which is going in an opposite direction,” said Shivambu.

He explained that the projections the NDP aspirations were based on were of an economy growing by an average of 5% to 6% up until 2020 and later on to 2030. “None of that is happening, instead the economy is growing in the negative."

He also criticised the so-called “unbundling” of Eskom into three components, saying it was a bad idea considering the crisis faced by the power utility.

“If there is any unbundling that should happen at Eskom, it should be to create a state-owned renewable energy company, a component of Eskom that is going to harvest the wind, the sun, to create sustainable and renewable energy.

“It should be to focus separately on the construction of a nuclear power station in a fiscally neutral way,” said Shivambu.

Members of parliament debated President Cyril Ramaphosa's recent state of the nation address (Sona) on Tuesday June 25 2019. Members of the major opposition parties were quick to criticise the president. Here are three of the punchiest moments from the debate.


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