Conservative Policies Could Boost South Africa

Mmusi Maimane is the leader of the South Africa's official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and a champion for conservative economic policies that are South Africa's best hope for surviving its current economic slump.

Maimane's five step plan to set the country on track has many excited about reform and were enticed by another element: a clear conservative tone.

The five steps are as follows:

In an effort to curb the energy crisis he proposes that energy production responsibilities be distributed to independent power producers with an emphasis on those in the renewable energy sector.

This is in contrast to the current disastrous performance of the state owned energy provider Eskom. In the interim of transferring to private energy companies he would allocate $40 million to subsidize industrial generators for the manufacturing industry.

His party said it would also immediately cancel the $78 billion nuclear build procurement processes regarding nuclear power stations.

On mining, the party would limit the powers of the state and the minister of mineral resources to set prices and change regulations in the sector.

"Further to this, the DA would safeguard against the indiscriminate raising of the 26 percent B-BBEE [broad-based black economic empowerment] ownership level currently required by the mining charter in order to provide investors with greater long-term security," Maimane said.

New visa regulations have been cited as one major influence in a recent sharp drop in tourism which is South Africa's biggest job creator. Mmusi plans to suspend these regulations immediately.

His party has also called for relaxing labor laws and reducing red tape for small, medium, and micro-sized businesses.

The DA has taken a long term approach in their vision for turning South Africa around, becoming "the leader and beacon of hope for the developing world" by 2029.

Matthew Klynsmith earned a business administration diploma at CTI in Cape Town, South Africa. He now works at Strategic Options as an associate partner. To read more reports from Matthew Klynsmith, Go Here Now.