Until there is economic transformation we are all sitting on a time bomb.
There are different theories about how this transformation should come about but there is agreement that the plight of the millions of people who are unemployed has to be made a top priority.
The new growth path is the flavour of the month, but what basic things do we need to do to make it meaningful and its implementation and impact sustainable?
Four things come to mind: creating sustainable and decent jobs, strengthening the capacity of the state, fighting corruption and strengthening social partnerships.
President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation address, minus the usual rhetoric, focused on jobs — a key programme against which his administration will be judged. It is a bold thing because, unlike other promises made and not kept by successive ANC governments, you can’t fudge jobs.
If you say you will create five million jobs, you can’t fudge that target when D-day comes. The devil is, of course, in the detail but it is hoped that by the time you read this the minister of finance will have made us all a tad wiser about how precisely the billions that Zuma has allocated will sow the seed that will see us reap five million jobs through job drivers such as infrastructure and rural development.
Allocating these billions and setting these high standards for the delivery of our people from the clutches of poverty presumes a certain level of state capacity to implement its vision efficiently. We all know that this is currently weakened by high vacancy levels and the misallocation of human resources, which are often manifested by wrong appointments to positions of authority.
It was honest of the president to acknowledge, albeit indirectly, that there is a need to refocus on appointing qualified people to crucial positions in the civil service. This, one hopes, will signal that the days of rampant blind deployment, which is based on political party loyalty rather than on skills and experience, would finally become a thing of the past.
True economic transformation means that we should stop being shy about this failed formula of human resourcing and tackle the challenges of job creation head on by deploying the right skills to the right parts of the economy. This should be the first concrete step to stimulate the kind of economic activity that would rise up to the jobs challenge.
The government would also do well by filling the thousands of vacancies and stemming the unacceptable practice of underspending in crucial service areas. The third key area for economic growth is the all-important fight against corruption.
In 2009 alone the auditor general found that more than R600-million was wasted through corruption by civil servants. Many more millions were wasted in unauthorised and wasteful expenditure.
Millions of rands were lost by 17 000 civil servants caught stealing social grants. This is unacceptable in a country that can hardly pay key civil servants who are pleading poverty, such as teachers and doctors.
So one wonders how much of the billions being allocated to create jobs will end up lining the pockets of unscrupulous civil servants and connected greedy business people. Part of the trouble is that, although the correct anti-corruption noises are being made, there are very few cases of people being punished for stealing from state coffers.
The conviction register at the National Prosecuting Authority is bare. The new growth path cannot thrive in an environment of fiscal wastage and theft. Finally, the fourth focus has to be what the growth path describes as social dialogue.
Social partnership is key in giving meaning to the huge resource allocation by the government. So, in this respect, the urgent overdue meeting between the government and business must happen.
There will be no economic stimulation if business is kept guessing about the possibility of a major shift in economic policy as suggested by labour in political partnership with the governing party. The approach of the government to broad-based BEE is crucial in this regard.
The current codes of good practice have all the hallmarks of economic transformation. The ownership element, if implemented correctly, is poised to transfer wealth to the majority. The BEE Act forces companies to invest in people through its skills development imperatives — it forces equal opportunities through employment equity and enforces the development of enterprises and investment in communities.
Companies are urged to procure differently to boost the ability of small, medium and micro enterprises to create jobs. The BEE council therefore has its work cut out for it to monitor the implementation of this progressive legislation rather than waste time on its review and attempt to introduce new laws that would create further uncertainty.
Many in business have woken up to the reality that transformation is a key business imperative — but there is not enough incentive or punishment for non-compliance with the broad-based elements of this law. Partnership with labour is also crucial for economic transformation. If labour insists on impossible labour laws, it will drive foreign investment away and make the jobs target illusionary.
Flighting the notion of the nationalisation of mines and the bizarre suggested blanket ban on labour brokers who provide R3-billion worth of much-needed part-time jobs will reverse whatever gains there may be in the renewed focus on jobs. The social dialogue that is implied by the growth path must also be about facing some simple economic realities.
As we seek to develop sustainability we cannot constantly allow any social partner to threaten the rest of society with the imposition of ideological paradigms that have been defeated all over the world. It is clear that all the correct ingredients are there — the skills and capacity and the financial muscle to make it possible.
But for many ordinary citizens the growth path is as meaningless as its predecessors, the reconstruction and development programme and the growth, employment and redistribution plan. What many will remember is the promise of jobs and their experience of joblessness and poverty.
To rub salt into their wounds, schoolbooks for their children were late again this year and hospitals are without drugs. We must feel that there is something new and meaningful in the new growth path that our country is embarking upon.
Onkgopotse Tabane is a communications specialist and business person. He writes here in his personal capacity