Parliament – President Jacob Zuma insists South Africa has a good story to tell and says those who have not noticed the country’s productivity either don’t live here or are not very observant.
This as the president responded to questions in the National Assembly earlier on Thursday with regards to government’s plan towards realising its plans for an inclusive economy.
Zuma said the country still needed to undergo radical socio-economic transformation ensure the participation of black people in the economy as owners and top managers and not only as workers.
“The Constitution of the Republic is not as explicit on economic rights as it is on political rights. However it does enjoin us to use legislative and other measures to reverse the discrimination of the past suffered by black people,” he says.
“Government will work with business and labour to achieve the goals set out in State of the Nation Address and other programmes to bring black people into the main stream of the economy.
“We are pleased by good working relationship between government and private sector, building on good existing history of working together. We continue to work together to reignite growth given the global pressure on economy. Together we established the CEO initiative and we meet to discuss critical issues facing the economy and inclusive growth. Also work together for the implementation of the NDP. “
The Inkatha Freedom Party’s Mkhuleko Hlengwa then asked how the President can speak about radical economic transformation and a good story to tell when none of them had materialised and unemployment rates were still high.
“Yes we do have a good story to tell, if you make a comparison between South African and any other country in the continent in 20 years, you will find no other country that could identify the progress we have made in 20 years of freedom,” he says.
“The very fact that South Africa is recognised as the biggest economy in the continent shows that we have a good story to tell. So you can’t say there is no good story to tell, we have programmes that are very clear that government has implemented, among others the infrastructure is a reality. There is development in the country in various ways. What have caused some difficulties have been the economic troubles in 2008 that affected all the other countries, not just South Africa, but we have
made progress.
“The fact that we can talk about unemployment does not mean in the figures we do not have employment that has been made by the programme that government has put forward, there is.
“What has been the difficulty has been the economic meltdown because South Africa can’t trade to itself, it had to trade with other countries. So the story of South African is correct, we have introduced Operation Phakisa, which has added impetus in the efforts we are making to grow our economy.
“If someone says there is nothing happening in this country, it will be somebody who is not observing the productivity of this country or does not live in South Africa.”