Cape Town – President Jacob Zuma says despite being a young democracy, South Africa has made a lot of progress in building a resilient economy that is inclusive.
The President addressed The New Age business briefing, in Cape Town, on Friday morning. His address was aimed at unpacking the State of the Nation Address he delivered in the National Assembly on Thursday night.
President Zuma said while a lot still needs to be done, he is satisfied with the progress that has been made by the country.
“I believe that as a country, given our age and the challenges, we have made good progress.
“I think it is accepted by many in the world that South Africa has made progress. We have dealt with the social issues that affect our country and we have created jobs but the only problem is that while we are creating jobs, we are losing jobs at the same time,” he said.
President Zuma on Thursday said South Africa has made progress in implementing government’s Nine-Point Plan.
The plan aims to deal with, among, others:
- Revitalisating the agriculture and agro-processing value chain;
- Advancing mineral beneficiation;
- Implementating more effectively the Industrial Policy Action Plan;
- Unlocking the potential of SMME, co-operativess, township and rural enterprises;
- Resolving the energy challenge;
- Stabilising the labour market;
- Scaling-up private sector investment;
- Growing the Ocean Economy and cross-cutting areas to reform, boost and diversify the economy.
President Zuma said progress had been made to stabilise the electricity supply.
Government has invested R83 billion in Eskom, which has enabled the utility to continue investing in Medupi and Kusile, while continuing with a diligent maintenance programme, the President said.
Additional units from the Ingula power station will be connected in 2017, even though some of them will begin synchronisation this year.
Boosting investment
Government, through the Department of Trade and Industry, introduced a number of incentives in the past few years to boost investments in the manufacturing sectors, especially textiles, leather and the automotive sectors.
The President said incentives that were introduced for the automotive sector have attracted investments of over R25 billion over the last five years.
Construction has begun in at least five Agri Parks, which include West Rand in Gauteng, Springbokpan in North West, Witzenberg in Western Cape, Ncora in the Eastern Cape and Enkangala in Mpumalanga.
The President said government often made difficult decisions and has investment in several areas to improve the quality of the lives of all citizens.
“We have been working very hard to invest. For example, infrastructure is one of the very visible areas of progress that we have made in the country. We are building huge power stations to satisfy the needs of the economy and the needs of the people.
“We have worked out a national plan that is accepted by all South Africans... We have made education priority number one and we have divided the department into Basic and Higher Education to make the majority of South Africans, who were excluded before, part of the economy,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
