Johannesburg - The ANC has called on the state-owned enterprises “to sort themselves out immediately”.
“Lekgotla made a call to government to urgently attend to all apparent crisis points within the state-owned companies. We have been assured that Eskom’s [Limpopo power station] Medupi’s unit 6 will be fully commissioned in August 2016, and that this deadline will not be shifted again,” ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday.
Mantashe added that the troubled state-owned enterprises would remain important in a developing state.
Mantashe also told journalists in Johannesburg, following the party’s lekgotla held over the weekend, that South Africa’s commercial farmers needed as much help from government as small-scale farmers.
“When national and provincial departments visit rural areas, too much emphasis is placed on subsistence farming, and not commercial farmers. Government must focus on both commercial and subsistence farming as the latter is also critical to food security,” he said.
“Lekgotla reaffirmed the fact that agriculture has the potential to make a massive contribution to economic growth. Additional resources must be allocated to this area in order to allow it to fulfil its potential.”
He said when countries such as China looked to import meat, it was the commercial farmers who had to supply them.
“Such a huge order does not just drop from the sky. Commercial farmers are the ones who have to produce and sell to such a country that product. We need to develop these farmers to their full potential.”
Turning to education, Mantashe said the meeting called on the finalisation of policy that would allow free education for poor students at undergraduate level.
“Significant improvements have been made in our priority areas of health and education, and the lekgotla has called for the finalisation of the Free Education Policy for poor students at undergraduate level as a matter of urgency,” he said.
“It also called for the ring fencing of a portion of the NFSAS [National Student Financial Aid Scheme] to fund specifically scarce and critical skills.”
ANA