Durban - Energy sustainability and economic transformation are set to dominate the three-day ANC lekgotla, which kicks off after Friday’s national executive committee meeting.
The lekgotla, outside Pretoria, is expected to assess government delivery progress against ANC priorities, including employment, eradicating poverty and reducing inequality.
Discussions are expected to be robust given continuing load shedding, and its impact on a lacklustre economic growth environment, while South Africans are under pressure with prices rising for petrol, municipal rates and electricity tariffs.
The ANC lekgotla precedes the cabinet lekgotla, which traditionally opens the budget cycle, which then soon sees departments submitting their programme and finance plans and, in October, the finance minister’s medium-term budget policy statement, dubbed the mini-budget, which reviews and adjusts government’s spending and income for the financial year.
“It (ANC lekgotla) has to guide government. We don’t want to prescribe to government, but our responsibility is to give direction,” said ANC national spokesman, Zizi Kodwa, on Wednesday, adding this was the reason the ANC lekgotla was expanded to allow for the participation of executive mayors, directors-general and MPs.
“These are the people who need to understand the priorities of the government.”
Kodwa said sustainable energy was an ongoing preoccupation, even as significant work was being done as a briefing to the January lekgotla showed.
“Economic transformation will still dominate. It’s only through transformation in these sectors we can perform better,” said Kodwa.
“Priorities include job creation and job absorption, particularly for the youth.
“We are very concerned about this.”
His comments come in the wake of a parliamentary reply by deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa in which he said that although 240 000 new jobs for young people were created in the past 12 months, youth unemployment had not decreased.
“500 000 young people enter-ed the labour market, so while jobs are being created for young people, they are not yet on the scale required,” Ramaphosa’s parliamentary reply said.
State-owned enterprises, where revolving doors have seen the exit of senior officials, not only at Eskom, but also at SAA and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), could also come into focus.
Daily News