A new deal for radical transformation in SA
THE acceleration of radical economic transformation in South Africa needs a bold new deal to fight poverty, unemployment and inequality, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.
“Poverty, unemployment and inequality continue as defining features of our society. In the face of poverty, unemployment and inequality continue to be black. The struggle to ensure that all South Africans share in the country’s wealth must therefore stand at the centre of our national agenda,” Ramaphosa said on Monday.
Speaking at the ANC Johannesburg region’s economic colloquium in Orlando East, Soweto, Ramaphosa said that 23 years into democracy, it should be acknowledged that not all South Africans had reaped the economic dividend of their hard fought democracy.
He said South Africa’s economy and society needed to be transformed. He said that there were also structural features of the South African economy that needed to be radically transformed.
“It is in places like Soweto that the radical economic transformation of our country will take place and where its effects will most keenly be felt. It is the people living in townships, informal settlements and rural towns and villages who will occupy the new jobs that growth and transformation will bring,” he said.
“It is in these areas that young and black entrepreneurs will emerge, new businesses will be established, new factories must be opened, new social infrastructure developed and where new technological innov- ations will emerge.”Ramaphosa also called for a stop to corruption, saying: “To those with vested interests in ineffective governance, deliberate misgovernance, hidden deals, the concentration of economic control and unfair labour practices, we say: no more!” – ANA