Patricia de Lille’s GOOD Party launched its 2024 election manifesto this weekend.
The Party, which has two parliamentary seats, held the launch at the historic Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, north of Johannesburg and online. The manifesto consists of ten points that will “stop the suffering” of South Africans.
“Today, GOOD presents our plan for a fairer and more prosperous society free from human suffering. Our Leader has reminded us of the terrible suffering that persists in our country. And most of us already know, all too well, what South Africa’s problems are,” said Brett Herron, GOOD secretary general.
The ten points that the party is focusing on are:
- Investing for jobs: The party wants to Invest in public infrastructure, including electricity, transport, water, housing, and digital communications. These are the basics for real economic growth and will create jobs.
- A Basic Income Grant (BIG) for unemployed South Africans: GOOD wants to implement a R999 monthly basic income grant for unemployed individuals and increase other social grants in line with inflation.
- Making basic services such as water and electricity affordable.
- Fixing apartheid spatial planning through an accelerated land reform programme and to redistribute well-located land for more housing and socioeconomic opportunities.
- Using public land for the public good.
- Accelerating renewable energy generation and ending loadshedding with help from the private sector.
- Building quality public transport systems that will connect people to the economy.
- Fighting corruption by putting a system that detects corruption and sends corrupt officials to jail, not parliament.
- Empowering communities to help police fight crime and address why crime is so prevalent in South Africa.
- Reforming education by investing in Early Childhood Development.
But political analyst Thobani Zikalala told the SABC that GOOD’s launch of its manifesto online was a “bad idea.”
To combat “digital challenges,” the party should have launched where most of its voters are. “I would have suggested that such a manifesto launch of the GOOD Party must be hosted where the majority of these voters are. Because you need to consolidate them, but there are many challenges and many things that have changed since 2019 in the political landscape. You will need, as a political party, that does not have a consistent political activism to really consolidate the only vote that you have,” said Zikalala.
