Bank sector to push for implemention of Manuel’s growth plan

CAS Coovadia, head of the Banking Association of SA (Basa), dislikes talkshops, especially as he says the country knows what the problems are and what needs to be done to resolve them.

Speaking ahead of his organisation’s fourth banking summit next Wednesday, where it will push for implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP), Coovadia said: “Let’s not talk policy. We have the policy. It is the implementation that is the challenge.” He called for stakeholders to put national interests uppermost on the agenda.

Since the launch of the NDP several months ago, the policy has not been implemented even though it was adopted by the ANC at its conference in Mangaung last year. The policy has also been backed by the national government. The ruling party’s tripartite members have been vehemently against it; the troubled Congress of SA Trade Unions believes the NDP undermines worker rights and reduces wages.

The National Union of Metal-workers of South Africa said the plan was a “right-wing” strategy borrowed from the Democratic Alliance.

However, Nedbank chairman Reuel Khoza said in his bank’s annual report that his group endorsed the NDP as the key platform from which to tackle unemployment, eradicate poverty and reduce inequality.

He said the NDP provided a powerful beckoning vision and a compelling blueprint for national action. He considered it the nation’s rallying point, “an impeccable forward driving force around which to align”.

Meanwhile, Coovadia is evidently irritated by the failure to implement the plan.

The Banking Association even went as far as to rope in Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC’s deputy president and deputy chairman of the National Planning Commission, to give the keynote speech on the opening day of the summit.

“We aim to implement this commitment through various channels, including broadening access to financial services, implementation of Financial Sector Code elements, investment in economic growth and others,” the association said.

Coovadia believes his organisation is not setting itself on a collision path with Cosatu and Numsa. “We need to move away from steadfast positions if we are going to make any progress in this country,” he said.

Although the plan’s architect, Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel, has repeatedly called for the implementation of the NDP, his pleas seem to have fallen of deaf ears in the government. He has again reiterated that the policy needs to be fast-tracked ahead of the 2014 elections.

Last year, 33 chief executives of major South African groups committed themselves to support the NDP in an open letter published in the Sunday Times.

The summit will also establish priorities for the banking sector that will include infrastructure development, human settlements and the spatial economy, and enterprise finance.

This follows the challenge by deputy finance minister Nhlanhla Nene to the banking sector to identify projects in the state’s multitrillion-rand infrastructure programme which it could fund. Last year, Nene said the government would spend about R1.9trillion on electricity generation, education, health and transport.