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Title: The Neo-Liberal Agenda
Author: Zabalaza
Date: April 2001
Language: en
Topics: neoliberalism, South Africa, Zabalaza
Source: Retrieved on 5th August 2021 from https://zabalaza.net/2001/04/15/zabalaza-1-april-2001/
Notes: Published in Zabalaza #1.

Zabalaza

The Neo-Liberal Agenda

Underlying the government’s drive to privatise is the neo-liberal GEAR

programme. This is a macro-economic policy adopted by the government in

mid-1996. GEAR argues that the capitalist class is the engine of

reconstruction and development in South Africa. As such, GEAR sets out a

list of government policies that are designed to put a smile on the face

of big business.

The key GEAR policies include

• A huge cutback in government spending. GEAR argues that government

spends too much money and must therefore retrench public sector workers,

as well as “strictly contain” and “reprioritise” spending on education,

health and other social services.

• Privatisation and commercialisation of state-owned companies, such as

ESKOM. These companies must be run like profit-making companies and be

sold to private companies where possible

• Deregulating trade and investments: instead of companies being closely

regulated through laws, customs duties, and so on, these companies

should be able to move their money easily, and import and export goods

easily.

• Labour market flexibility, which means that bosses will be able to

hire and fire workers more easily, as well as vary wages, working hours

and jobs

Government’s idea is that these policies create “an attractive investor

climate,” leading to large-scale investment by local and international

companies, which will create jobs, growth and tax money for social

services.

GEAR has proved to be a disaster for the broad working class

• Over half-a-million jobs have been lost since 1994, and investment has

declined in a number of sectors

• Sectors such as textiles and automobiles are under fierce attack from

cheap imports, leading to job losses and large-scale anti-worker

industrial restructuring

• Spending on social services has been drastically cut, which mainly

affects workers and the poor: service workers like teachers and nurses

are retrenched, pensions are being cut, housing programmes are being

frozen and hospitals run-down and closed.

• Important worker rights in the Labour Relations Act and the Basic

Conditions of Employment Act are under siege from proposed new labour

law amendments that cut overtime pay and job security.

• Money for local governments and universities has been slashed, leading

to the implementation of programmes like iGoli 2002 and Wits 2001.

• Government companies and utilities like electricity and water are

being run on a profit-making, 100% cost recovery basis, and are now

being sold-off, leading to massive job losses, price rises and cut-offs.

GEAR offers the working class nothing. GEAR lies behind the

privatisation crisis. And behind GEAR stand the rich, the owners of the

big companies, the real rulers of our country.