South Africa’s economy has been struggling to grow for years.
Is ANC’s 10-point plan a copy of DA’s?
Weeks after ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa encouraged councillors to replicate the successes of the DA, his political rival has argued the ANC’s 10-point plan is almost the same as its strategy to turbocharge the economy.
Ramaphosa on Monday revealed his party’s plan to stimulate economic growth and create jobs.
“Today’s announcement of the ‘ANC’s Economic Action Plan’ by President Cyril Ramaphosa mirrors much of the DA’s ‘Plan to Turbocharge the Economy’, which identified roadblocks that needed to be removed to build superhighways towards growth and jobs.
“The ANC’s plan just adds its own failed ideas of BEE [Black Economic Empowerment] and race-based policy to the DA’s plan announced last month,” said DA head of policy Mat Cuthbert.
Implementation
Cuthbert said some of the reforms Ramaphosa proposed were necessary to boost economic activity, but questioned the ability of the ANC’s political heads to oversee the implementation of this plan.
“While we agree with several of the reforms proposed by President Ramaphosa, such as private sector participation in electricity and logistics, professionalising the civil service, ringfencing revenue for reinvestment into critical network infrastructure, and expanding support for SMEs, we question his ANC ministers’ ability to implement these reforms at the required speed and depth,” he said.
Black Economic Empowerment
He also said that the insistence on backing race-based policies such as BEE is problematic for economic growth.
“We remain concerned at his continued defence of the ANC’s failed Black Economic Empowerment policy (BEE), which has deterred investment, stifled growth, and benefited ANC cadres at the expense of the vast majority of black South Africans who remain trapped in poverty and excluded from opportunity,” said Cuthbert.
Ramaphosa said the ANC’s plan will be implemented in government.
Here is the plan
The plan calls for the following interventions:
- Utilising electricity, tariffs, and investments in transmission,
- Accelerate the recovery of the country’s freight and logistics sector,
- Rebuild the chrome and manganese industries,
- Enhance the state’s capacity to undertake major infrastructure projects,
- Drive local economic development and investment in local infrastructure,
- Focuses on labour activation initiatives, as well as public employment,
- Expand SMME support and investment by Development Finance Institutions,
- Enable the growth of provincial economies outside of the main economic centres,
- Accelerate the diversification of South Africa’s trade partners, strengthen the countries’ participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area and address the impact of tariff and non-tariff barrier; and
- Ensure effective budget and macroeconomic coordination
“These ten interventions align with and support the work underway in all spheres of government. They signal the urgency and intent of the ANC as we move rapidly to address an economic emergency,” he said.
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War Room
Ramaphosa stated that the NEC had also resolved to establish an Economic War Room within the Presidency to coordinate cross-government performance monitoring and publish regular scorecards on progress.
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