Plenty of pay promises from Malema

JULIUS Malema wants to double social grants and set a minimum wage for all sectors if he becomes president.

The former ANC Youth League leader has guaranteed teachers, nurses, police officers and other public servants a 50% salary hike if his Economic Freedom Fighters party comes to power in elections this year.

These are some of the promises in the EFF election manifesto, which Malema unveiled in Tembisa yesterday.

But none of the plans will be implemented because the EFF is unlikely to unseat the ANC in the May 7 elections.

According to recent surveys, Malema's party is expected to emerge as the third-largest, with the Democratic Alliance remaining the main opposition.

Malema promised pensioners R2600 a month and said people with disabilities would receive R2400.

Even if Malema's party was to win power, such promises would be difficult to fund - more than 16 million citizens on social grants already cost the state billions of rands. The ANC government is under pressure to cut spending on social grants as critics warn the system is unsustainable.

But the EFF said it would increase taxes on the private sector and boost the government budget from R1-trillion to R2-trillion by 2017.

In addition, the party would cut spending on public representatives by making ministers and MECs stay in their own houses and use their own cars.

It would move parliament to Pretoria and cut the Presidency budget by 60% by closing presidential residences in Cape Town and Durban. Malema would also scrap support for the wives of presidents, which has increased to about R16-million under President Jacob Zuma.

To appeal to Cosatu members, the EFF promised to ban labour brokers and force companies to continue paying workers for six months after retrenching them.

Under a Malema government, domestic workers would earn a minimum of R4500 a month, and petrol attendants' salaries and those of farm and retail workers would rise to R5000.

In support of demands by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, Malema wants miners to earn a minimum wage of R12500. He promised security guards R7500, restaurant waiters R4500, builders R7000 and cleaners R4500.

The EFF repeated its commitment to nationalise mines and banks and expropriate land without compensation. The party would make it illegal for banks to repossess houses if clients had paid 50% of the bond.