The patience of the poor should not be taken for granted, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday.
”As long as poverty remains at its current levels, it will test our democracy,” he told Pretoria business leaders at a breakfast meeting.
Manuel told his audience they are privileged. Part of that privilege is the fact that poor South Africans are patient and have placed their trust in a better future.
”We must not take that patience for granted.”
The minister urged the business sector to become more involved in the fight against poverty, adding that more money is not the solution to everything. The focus should be on boosting human capacity in all sectors, including business and the government.
Manuel, who delivered a large part of his speech in Afrikaans, highlighted poverty and unemployment as two of the great issues the African National Congress addresses in its election manifesto.
The third, he said, is the inclusion of all citizens in addressing the country’s challenges.
”You cannot have an active state with a passive population.”
The minister cited policing as an example, stressing the need for more involvement in community policing forums. He also mentioned crime-busting successes achieved in Johannesburg and Cape Town with closed-circuit television cameras installed in city centres, sponsored largely by the business sector.
Pretoria lags far behind in this respect, Manuel said.
He listed health service delivery and schools as examples of areas requiring community involvement if things are to run more smoothly.
If a clinic, for example, is not held accountable by the community it served, its services are unlikely to improve.
Turning to matters economic, the minister said South African business has benefited much from macro-economic stability in the past few years. But some things are still not quite right.
”Yes, exports are better, yes, we export more manufactured goods and services, but it is still mostly foreign investors.
”South Africans somehow cannot get it together and take on the world with exports.”
Trade agreements concluded in recent years with several countries are also not being sufficiently exploited.
South African business has to concentrate more on establishing ”where is the market, what are we going to do about changing that market, and how do we niche?”
”If we don’t do this, we will find ourselves out of pace with world demands,” Manuel said. — Sapa