ANC ‘has no recession plan’
• EFF leader says jobs crisis was not tackled at party conference
Julius Malema has asked where the ANC resolution is to get SA out of recession and to lift the country out of junk status.
The EFF leader made the remark during his keynote address at the Rand Merchant Bank Macro Forum in Sandton on Thursday, a gathering of SA’s leading economists and executives at which the state of the economy was discussed.
“What is the ANC resolution from the policy conference about resolving the recession and taking us out of junk status? [President Jacob] Zuma never addressed that.”
Malema said the ANC was not focused on issues affecting the South African economy and dismissed the governing party’s recently concluded, six-day policy conference as “useless”.
He accused the ANC of adopting a “waiting in a waiting room for growth” economic strategy. Under former president Thabo Mbeki’s tenure the country experienced economic growth of about 5%, but wealth was not distributed.
“We are tired of waiting. Our people are getting tired of waiting,” Malema warned.
He accused the ANC of not having an action plan for the economy, saying nothing could be achieved with “[the] corrupt government of the day. No one said anything about redistribution, or the high levels of unemployment,” he said.
“No one spoke about growing this economy.”
The EFF would borrow the Chinese economic model of redistributing wealth, he said, adding that it “empowered a lot of their people” and that the government there owned strategic sectors of the economy.
“We have not seen foreign investors saying they cannot do business without China. The only thing they are raising is human rights, not economic policy,” said Malema.
Commenting on Malema’s remarks that the ANC had not factored in the state of the economy at its policy conference, University of the Witwatersrand economist Lumkile Mondi said: “Those issues were never touched upon. The ANC is strong politically, but [is] weak with implementation.
“The economy, the recession and the credit rating downgrades are not a priority. The priority is for the party to come out victorious in 2019 and maintain political power.” Mondi said that despite the economic trap SA was in and the rising levels of inequality and unemployment, this was not a focus for the ANC.
ANC economic committee chairman Enoch Godongwana and party spokesman Zizi Kodwa could not be reached for comment at publication.
On Monday, speaking at the opening of the tax season, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said the Treasury had an economic action plan “with timelines to implement certain structural reforms in the economy in order to boost business confidence so that we can get the economy reignited” in response to the recession and the credit rating downgrades.
Mondi warned, however, that the relationship between the Treasury and the Presidency was strained.
“The minister’s capabilities are limited by the boss. Under [President Jacob] Zuma, there is continuous tension between Treasury and the Presidency.”
Mondi said Gigaba would need “to pull a rabbit out of his hat” on the economy and whatever recovery plan he came up with would have to be approved by Zuma.
“If Zuma hasn’t given it the thumbs up, that plan is not going to see the light of day.”
In June, Gigaba held a briefing to discuss the way forward for the economy, reiterating the Treasury’s commitment to the fiscal framework and the National Development Plan. The briefing, endorsed by the Cabinet, was meant to give details on the interventions the state would institute to tackle the challenges facing the economy within the budget framework.
Gigaba said there were interventions to stimulate inclusive growth in the context of the credit rating downgrades and the recession, but he did not outline concrete interventions.
WE ARE TIRED OF WAITING. OUR PEOPLE ARE GETTING TIRED OF WAITING NO ONE SAID ANYTHING ABOUT REDISTRIBUTION … OR ABOUT GROWING THIS ECONOMY