South Africa still has to achieve a total economic transformation in the country, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) said on Thursday.
This statement was contained in the party’s policy discussion documents released in Johannesburg.
The aim is to stimulate debate in the party’s branches ahead of its national policy conference in June.
”We are still some way from our vision of the economic base of a national democratic society [that] aims to realise the Freedom Charter’s vision of a society in which people shall share in the country’s wealth,” Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said.
Radebe, also chairperson of the ANC’s policy committee, said women and black youth remain sidelined in the economic and employment sector.
”Although jobs are being created, the vast majority remain unemployed, especially black youth and women, many of whom have never held full-time employment and who lack the skills to gain entry into fast-growing sectors of the economy.”
He said ”direct interventions were required” to absorb the surplus of unskilled and semi-skilled workers.
One of the interventions outlined is to eradicate the ”second economy”, which Radebe described as ”inter-generational poverty”.
To achieve this, he said education should be used.
”Sharing the benefits of growth is as important as achieving the growth … and the most significant vehicle for sharing growth would be to eliminate the second economy.”
Radebe also said the private sector should be mobilised to participate fully in the country’s vision of economic transformation.
Also, he pointed out that the country’s continued prosperity will depend on a diversification of its industrial base.
”Black economic empowerment should be linked directly to the expansion and diversification of our economic base, as well as ensuring the ownership and control of capital is de-racialised.”
The policy conference in June will be part of a process of preparation for the ANC’s 52nd national conference, to be held in Limpopo in December.
Radebe said a resolution on the economy will be adopted at that conference.
”The resolution should provide enduring and useful guidance for the ANC as a whole, but in particular for those cadres we deploy in the government to implement policy and develop tactical responses to a dynamic and constantly evolving economic situation.” — Sapa