President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a wide range of initiatives around growth-enhancing economic reforms, with reprioritisation of public spending to stimulate and support job creation. An infrastructure fund will be established, and critical interventions in education and health will take place. The government will also invest in social infrastructure in municipalities.
SACCI welcomes these announcements as South Africa faces distinct challenges around unemployment, economic growth, inequality, and poverty. SACCI looks forward to hearing more detail on how many jobs would be created, where the funding would be reprioritised from, and how new legislation will work more effectively than existing policy, which on the face of it is seemingly good but has little impact.
Everything mentioned in the President’s stimulus package has been heard before – in one form or another over the past five years. They all form part of the government’s existing medium-term strategic framework. The Minister of Finance and his team has been reprioritising the budget in line with essential priorities since 2011. Education and health already receive a substantial portion of the budget as key social sectors – with most of the funding provided to provincial government as part of the equitable share and conditional grants.
Business needs further in-depth detail on these initiatives within the stimulus package, and clarity on information on the energy sector – which ultimately drives many businesses’ abilities to expand. The review of visas for business and tourism and more information regarding additional information about South Africa’s relationship with the rest of Africa should also be a priority to expanding our economy into the region, to leverage the water, electricity, skills, technology, and growth that is available across our borders.
The stimulus package will only be effective if all social partners work towards rooting out corruption and the misuse of money, and they work towards common long-term goals – not idealistic or separatist, short-term ones. The outcomes of the , Jobs Summit (25, 26 and 27 October) will give a clearer picture of what to expect.