Ramaphosa hits back at critics

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has accused his critics of being impatient with his administration as the annual SA Investment Conference started yesterday, with more than R100 billion being pledged by the private sector towards job creation.

Ramaphosa initiated the annual event last year as part of re-igniting the country’s economy and addressing growing unemployment, but has over time been criticised for organising talk shops that do not produce concrete results in terms of job creation.

Ramaphosa said critics were not realistic in their expectations about his five-year term investment drive. He said commitments made by business would create “enormous jobs” and revive the economy in the long term.

“Some people tend to say we want to see all that happening tomorrow. Life does not work that way. We need to take a medium- and a long-term view. We need to remain focused on what we want to achieve.”

For the next five years, the president aims to attract about R1.2 trillion in investment. Last year’s investment raked in about R300bn. He maintained most of the money received was already ploughed into programmes.

He admitted though that the economy was still ailing.

“Investment has dwindled and the rate of unemployment has increased. Today we are reeling and feeling the effects of several years of state capture and corruption, the erosion of important public institutions and the resultant policy malaise,” he said.