Political party leaders attended the National Convention in Emperors Palace in Johannesburg this week. Pictured from left, Neil de Beer (UIM), Pieter Groenewald (FF+), Dr Zukile Luyenge (Isanco), Velenkosini Hlabisa (IFP), Christopher Claasen (SNP), Herman Mashaba (ActionSA) and John Steenhuisen (DA). Picture: Timothy Bernard/African News Agency (ANA)
The Free Market Foundation (FMF) has raised its support for the Multi-Party Charter, also known as the Moonshot Pact, saying it was encouraged by the collective’s values ahead of the 2024 national general elections.
The CEO of the FMF, David Ansara, said South Africa’s future depended on embracing the free market and welcomed the Multi-Party Charter’s values of freedom, political decentralisation, an open market economy, and non-racialism.
The FMF is an independent, non-profit, public benefit organisation, created in 1975 by pro-free market business and civil society national bodies.
As the Multi-Party National Convention entered its second day of talks, the FMF said it also welcomed the undertaking to reject parties that were committed to the "socialist National Democratic Revolution".
The coalition of parties, including the Democratic Alliance, Inkatha Freedom Party, ActionSA, Freedom Front Plus, Spectrum National Party, United Independent Movement, and Independent South African National Organisation (Isanco), had agreed on a shared vision "to form a new government to build a just, inclusive, and prosperous South Africa based on opportunity, freedom, and security for all its citizens."
Among the Multi-Party Charter for South Africa’s shared governing principles, it included decentralising power to the lowest effective level of government, a commitment to redress the country’s unjust past by promoting non-racialism and unity in diversity, and an open market economy.
Ansara said the FMF believed that an open market economy meant greater levels of choice for ordinary South Africans, much more competitiveness, and market-based solutions, including deregulation of the economy and privatisation of state functions and enterprises.
"We especially welcome the fact that the Multi-Party Charter has explicitly outlined freedom as one of its values. Freedom is often downplayed in the political discourse in South Africa, yet it is essential for the formation of a prosperous and peaceful society", Ansara said.
"Nearly 30 years into the democratic dispensation, it is abundantly clear to all that the time has come to turn away from the socialist ideas and values that undermine freedom of enterprise and the pursuit of prosperity," he added.
Ansara said the FMF was a non-partisan organisation, and its interest lay in promoting freedom in South Africa.
"As such, we would want to see like-minded political parties coalesce around the values that will lead to a future where all South Africans can prosper and thrive," Ansara said.
EXPLAINER: What is Moonshot Pact all about and what does it hope to achieve
kailene.pillay@inl.co.za
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