Experience the world over has demonstrated that economic growth and development requires strong guidance from the state “and a certain level of intervention in certain sectors”, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress says on its website.
In its website message on economic matters entitled “In Advance of a People’s Contract” — appearing under Friday’s letter from President Thabo Mbeki — the party said that its mandate from the electorate, underscored in three national elections, was to develop an economic model that effectively addresses “the core problems of unemployment, underdevelopment and [the] redress[ing of] the imbalance of the dual economy inherited from the apartheid state.
“A simplistic view that suggests a minimalist State and a private sector that dictates the terms is rather foolish and shortsighted,” the party says in the context of a raging national debate about perceived shifts towards greater government influence on economic development — particularly through the power of State-owned enterprises.
A strong guiding role for the State “represents a meaningful interpretation of the people’s contract endorsed by the electorate”, the party argues.
“The decision to locate the State-owned enterprises at the centre of government’s delivery programme is a strategic refocusing of resources at the disposal of the State to accelerate service delivery and influence economic growth,” says the message.
“The distortions in South Africa’s economy do not leave room for the luxury of a wait and see approach in terms of growth and development. The challenges and disparities are such that they require immediate interventions.”
The party says further that over the next five years “we have unambiguously articulated our plan which seeks to bridge the divide between the affluent segments of our society and the impoverished one.
“Government should play a direct role in propelling our economy to a point where it truly responds to the aspirations of the vast majority. In recent years, we have experienced resistance from certain sections of the private sector in embracing transformation that seeks to shift investment patterns towards the underdeveloped areas and empowering the so-called informal sector,” the party said, without elaborating.
“It is also a reality that the South African economy is characterised by excessive concentration of economic power in the hands of a tiny minority of the population,” the ANC added. – I-Net Bridge