After facing a barrage of booing at the African National Congress (ANC) KwaZulu-Natal elective conference on Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa does not need yet another plan to overcome the challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality.
Ramaphosa was addressing the nation on Monday in his weekly newsletter ‘From the Desk of the President.’
The president says there must be a willingness from both organised business and labour to discuss the trade-offs needed to implement growth-enhancing measures in such a constrained economic environment.
He says there needs to be greater alignment between government and civil society organisations in communities on poverty alleviation programmes.
“South Africa does not need yet another plan to overcome the challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality. That is why the focus of ongoing discussions is on a set of catalytic interventions for maximum impact.”
“We all want to see a consensus finalised, but given the complexity of the issues, and so that we don’t set ourselves up for failure, it is absolutely critical that genuine consensus is achieved among all social partners,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa also emphasised that there is a plan to deal with socio-economic challenges, perhaps in a swipe at former President Thabo Mbeki’s criticism of the African National Congress (ANC) for having “no national plan”.
“Let us be clear, the implementation of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan continues. The work to grow the economy and create jobs is going ahead with the support of all economic stakeholders.”
Ramaphosa says there has been significant progress since Sona in implementing economic reforms, expanding public and social employment programmes in an unprecedented manner, working to bring new electricity generation capacity online and mobilising new investment.
“There is agreement among social partners that the social compact cannot be a vague set of commitments, but a clear pathway to achieve higher levels of equality, jobs and common prosperity. What we now need is to work together with greater urgency and purpose, to complete that work, rather than to point fingers at one another.”
Ramaphosa says since the advent of democracy, South Africa and its social partners have on many occasions been able to unite around common programmes to address the challenges facing society.
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