By Neo Bodumela
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – The Government of National Unity (GNU) is committed to fostering economic growth, tackling unemployment and poverty and dealing with corruption in South Africa.
This according to President Cyril Ramaphosa who participated in a fireside discussion at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Business and Investment Summit held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The President said South Africa’s democratic election processes in 2024 resulted in the formation of the GNU – adding that the GNU is “working extremely well”, despite coming from differing political homes.
“As the [GNU] we identified three priorities that we wanted to work on. The first one is to engender economic growth and to create jobs. With 32% unemployed people in our country, we are having a serious challenge. So, we felt…to engender economic growth and to create jobs as the first priority.
“Our second priority was to address poverty. Poverty is still rife in our country, and it really emanates from our…colonial past and our apartheid past which in many ways engineered that there should be continued poverty, and we felt as the [GNU] that we should address this in a pointed way and to reduce the cost of living.
“The third priority we identified was to create and ensure that we have a capable, ethical and developmental state. We are trying to enforce that and enhance that in the various levels of our government,” President Ramaphosa said.
Pressing further, the President explained that government has embarked on a reform agenda in various areas to set the tone for economic growth.
“More broadly…we’ve embarked on a number of initiatives and interventions that are seeking to reposition the economy of our country as we reform our logistics, our ports, our roads [and] our electricity.
“We are also focusing on infrastructure build. We are now…investing well over a trillion Rand…in infrastructure. We are also focusing on improving local government where our people live and where investments live. The reforms that we are instituting are paying great dividends,” he said.
Combatting and rooting our corruption is also receiving intense focus from government.
“Corruption is rife not only in government but also in the private sector and we are dealing with that criminality and enforcing the rule of law.
“So, all the important indicators are being put in place, and they are being well aligned and addressed,” President Ramaphosa said. – SAnews.gov.za
