Update 1 March 2024:
And we have the first political casualty of the 2024 elections😶. Businessman and former anti-apartheid activist Roger Jardine’s Change Starts Now political party has bowed out of the 2024 elections. This was revealed in a statement released on Thursday night.
Launched in December, CNS released their 2024 election manifesto in Soweto last week.
Jardine said that a recent Constitutional Court ruling meant that CNS had, like other parties, faced a “prejudicial, logistical timetable to qualify for the ballot.” The statement also said that the party would offer support to political parties who share their values and the aspirations that they believe voters are looking for.
The party, launched in late 2023, was running on a platform of fixing South Africa. “It is a politics involving collaboration that we will lead. Change Starts Now is uniquely positioned to do this: mobilising and leveraging the capacities and capabilities of every sector, including political parties, civil society, workers, women, the youth, the private and public sectors,” they said.
29 February 2024
Businessman and former anti-apartheid activist Roger Jardine’s new political party, Change Starts Now, launched its 2024 election manifesto at Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, Soweto, on Monday, 19 February 2024.
The party, launched in late 2023, is running on a platform of fixing South Africa. “It is a politics involving collaboration that we will lead. Change Starts Now is uniquely positioned to do this: mobilising and leveraging the capacities and capabilities of every sector, including political parties, civil society, workers, women, the youth, the private and public sectors.”
Read: EFF Election Manifesto 2024: Key Points on Jobs, Land, and Education
The Party said that it had studied other parties’ manifestos, and while it agreed with them on the issues that needed fixing, It was more concerned with asking how. “Our Change Charter offers one big proposal: to fix this country, we must start by investing in our people and giving them hope,” the party said.
Among some of their key points are:
- The Regrow Fund, which includes:
- A 1.5% annual wealth tax for three years.
- A 4.2% increase in corporate tax for three years (from 28% to 32.2%).
- A 4.5% increase in individual tax for three years for those earning over R1.8 million annually (from 45% to 49.5%).
- A 1% annual charge on retirement funds for three years.
- Sustainable Access to Universal Healthcare
- Provincial hospitals must be able to make contracting decisions with either the public or private sectors.
- Medical schemes must be incentivised and able to purchase from both the public and private sectors.
- Private practitioners must be able to follow their patients into public sector platforms, enabling well-managed public facilities to recover revenue from the private sector without using their medical staff.
- A universal framework for emergency care should be established, combining public and private critical care capabilities.
- Creating Spatial Equality
-The party says it will invest in effective spatial planning, land management and service delivery at a local level and promote participatory urban planning processes, recognising and looking to model exceptional examples of community-led partnerships with civil society, academia and business around the country.
As voters consider their options, the ideas put forth by political parties are poised to spark meaningful discussions about the nation’s future direction and the strategies needed to overcome its challenges.
You can read the manifesto here.
