Johannesburg - If South Africa wants to make a real dent in unemployment, it would have to enhance the economic planning capacity of the state, the ANC believes.
But it says for this to be achieved, the levels of professionalism and discipline in the public service would have to improve.
The National Development Plan (NDP) aims to create 11 million jobs by 2030. In an attempt to pursue the NDP’s ambitious goals, President Jacob Zuma restructured the state machinery at the start of his first term in 2009, creating a dedicated department for economic development, among other changes. But, the changes have not achieved the maximum effect, and the ANC believes state co-ordination can be improved.
The ANC says although there have been a number of co-ordinating bodies, such as for the Fifa World Cup and the electricity war room, there is still a “lack of a higher level co-ordination of state capacity around economic development which needs to be addressed through a presidential-driven institutional arrangement as well as sectoral co-ordination where necessary”.
It says the role of the state should be accompanied by increasing its economic planning capacity, “restoring its long-term economic perspective, which should provide an anchor around which private sector investment decisions should be made”.
But in a document prepared for its national general council, the party acknowledges that a perceived lack of trust between the government and the private sector makes its desires for state-led and strategically guided investment difficult to achieve.
“State-led economic transformation does not imply that the state can go it alone in driving development. Rather, successful state-led investment must serve as a catalyst for increased levels of private sector investment,” the document reads.
“Recently, there have been claims of trust deficit between government and the business community. Such alleged trust deficit has to be closely scrutinised because the business community is not homogenous.”
Recent comments by ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe on job creation highlight the souring relationship between the ANC and business. He said that the private sector needed to make a “deliberate commitment, beyond words” to create employment and save existing jobs. Up to 100 000 could be lost this year.
Also earlier this month, Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramathlodi ordered Glencore to shut a coal mine because it failed to follow legal procedure in cutting jobs. This has now been provisionally suspended.
The document says that private sector investment in the economy remains weak.
It says some on the left argue that this low investment is because South African capital is unpatriotic and the state should enlarge its role in economic transformation, while those on the right believe the state is retarding private investment, state assets must be privatised and the state must reduce its role in the economy. Others argue that business has not been able to identify and implement profit-making investment projects over the past year, despite being cash flush.
“None of these arguments grasps the fundamental issue that the inclusive reconstruction and development of South Africa requires a dynamic mixed economy in which there is a synergistic and mutually re-enforcing relationship between the public and private sectors.
“Most crucial is to craft a balance between the contributions of public and private sectors in rolling out the economic transformation agenda,” the ANC says.
The priority now is to identify and remove obstacles to increased levels of private sector investment, while sustaining the public sector’s contribution, it says.
Labour Bureau Editor