Cape Town - The R350 Basic Income Grant which brought relief to the unemployed during the Covid-19 lockdown would continue for another year, President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
This as he called for fundamental change to revive the economy if it is to challenge unemployment, poverty and inequality during his State of the Nation Address (Sona) last night.
He acknowledged that during a year that unemployment inched closer to 40%, his administration would wage a war on red tape and regulations which stifled entrepreneurship and job creation.
He said the problems in the economy were deep and also structural and that the key task for the government was to create the conditions to enable the private sector.
“Government will make an initial investment of R1.8 billion in infrastructure development. Our intention is not to leave anyone behind. Private sector’s role and involvement in getting job creation up is important.”
Regarding poverty, Ramaphosa said the present situation of deep poverty and inequality was unacceptable and unsustainable. South Africa needed a new consensus, he said.
“As social partners, government, labour, business and community entities have begun discussions on the trade-offs needed to take the country forward, we have given ourselves 100 days.”
He said the country needed a new social compact and that to be effective the social compact would need to include every South African.
Ramaphosa said those responsible for state capture would be punished.
“Since the beginning of the year, I have been provided with the first two parts of the report of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture headed by Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo,” he said.
Ramaphosa said State capture had a direct and very concrete negative impact on the lives of all South Africans, but especially the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.
He said the reports had detailed the devastating effects of this criminal activity on SAA, Transnet, Denel, SA Revenue Service and Government Communications.
“By no later than June 30, I will present a plan of action in response to the Commission’s recommendations.”
Following calls from the opposition and business to end the national state of disaster, he said: “It is my intention to end the national state of disaster as soon as we have finalised other measures and legislation to manage and contain the epidemic.”
Calling the electricity crisis one of the greatest threats to growth and economic recovery, Ramaphosa said Eskom was on track to its own unbundling by the end of 2022.
“The last few days we were reminded of the fragility of our grid. When electricity supply can’t be guaranteed, our railways are not functioning as they should, water supply isn’t where it should be, this causes big problems.”
He said to address these and other challenges the government would accelerate the implementation of far-reaching reforms to unlock investment and reduce the cost of doing business. Ramaphosa said the country must create an environment that would be enabling for businesses to grow and create jobs.
“Government does not create jobs, businesses create jobs and around 80% of all employees in South Africa are in the private sector.”
He also spoke about the need for the passenger rail problems to be addressed as they directly impacted upon the lives of South Africans. It’s in the process of being rehabilitated, he said.
Regarding the ports, Ramaphosa said: “Our economy cannot grow if we don’t have sufficient and proper working ports. This holds us back to achieving higher levels of economic growth.”
He said Transnet was addressing these issues and would soon call for partnerships with the private sector.
Ramaphosa spoke about the delay in the migration from analogue to digital and said that the government would continue to subsidise low-income households with topset boxes for them to switch from analogue to digital.
He said the government was working on the visa requirements to make it easy for people to come to South Africa for tourism, study and job opportunities.
Ramaphosa said all these reforms underpinned the revival of the national economy. One of the plans to boost the economy was the industrialisation of hemp and cannabis.
He pointed out that neighbouring Lesotho has moved ahead on industrialisation of hemp and cannabis in leaps and bounds.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za