This week the chickens are coming home to roost as economists’ perceptions and opinions cast a shadow across the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) figures which, are not only sluggish but are “raising a risk of recession”, for the second quarter of 2015.
One would be naive not to interpret the given figures in the context of the difficulties in dismantling the economic structural patterns of the apartheid era. Policymakers have constantly warned against the dangers of failures to transform our economic sectors so as to promote inclusive growth, create jobs and, through enterprise development, push back the frontiers of poverty.
The world renowned economist and former chief economist of the World Bank, Professor Joseph Stieglitz said: “Societies face a very high price for inequality, especially when inequality reaches the high level that it does in the US and South Africa… and that undermines our democracy.”
These observations are incomplete without making special reference to the vulnerability of women in our current economic practices. According to the Business Women Association of South Africa’s 2015 Women in Leadership Census, “South African corporates need to rethink their approach to women leadership empowerment, if gender parity is to be achieved”. The report says that, out of the 293 JSE-listed companies surveyed, “just seven companies have female chief executives”.
Executive positions
“Women account for 11.6 percent of directorships and chairperson positions, of which 9.2 percent hold chairperson positions and 2.4 percent are chief executives.”
Furthermore, only 34 companies attained top performing companies status, which meant that they had more than 25 percent of women in executive managerial positions.
The growth rate target of 5 percent, as set out in the National Development Plan (NDP), seemed improbable when Statistics SA released a report on GDP, for the second quarter, on Wednesday, which showed that the South African economy contracted by 1.3 percent.
The 2015 August month’s high level conversations are once more giving us an opportunity to review our economic status, against a policy call for radical economic transformation, agreed upon in 2010.
The continent has more than 2 billion inhabitants, with prospects of broadband penetration, many have equal opportunities of being connected and participating in the economy. South Africa is leading in terms of infrastructure development, with a number of cables landing on our shores and there are also major technological projects such as the Square Kilometre Array, which would require high performance central computing engines and long-haul links with capacity greater than the current internet traffic.
All these projects open avenues for production of gadgets, such as electronics and set-top-boxes. Women have an important contribution, because of their predisposition it would innovate and produce technical equipment, which is user friendly for them. Bold interventions would certainly take us forward. Some of the possible interventions are:
Partnerships
* Implementation of smart policy interventions and partnerships envisaged in the NDP. This is a call for stepping up on the delivery of our commitments beyond compliance, especially on the side of the private sector. We have sector charts which are meant to be guidelines for minimum requirements and nothing is stopping our companies from going beyond.
* A fund for women which would allow collaboration and business partnerships within the continent and Brics countries is long overdue. The women’s fund could be a game changer and open markets which would otherwise be inaccessible.
Women leadership in our boards is critical for our radical economic transformation agenda. Women have in the past called for a development and an empowerment agency.
Strong women leadership is needed in the priority sectors of the economy, such as financial services, energy, ICT, manufacturing, agriculture and mining.
As a country it is imperative to manage cynicism and learn to be upbeat about breakthroughs in our economic transformation journey.
Positive interventions, which support the growth of the economy, should be celebrated. Recently, an announcement was made about the opening of unit six of the long awaited Medupi power plant, and the lukewarm response was puzzling, especially since the country has gone through many months of electricity outages.
The importance of the opening of this unit cannot be underestimated, especially after the International Monetary Fund warned that the continued power outages were the biggest obstacles to South Africa’s economic growth.
* Hlengiwe Mkhize is National Convener of the Progressive Women’s Movement of South Africa and Deputy Minister of the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services
** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media
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