Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma says affirmative action is needed to reverse the effects of apartheid that saw millions of South Africans excluded from participating in the economy for years.
Responding to the debate on the State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Parliament on Thursday, President Zuma said he did not understand why some opposition parties were still opposed to affirmative action, saying it was needed to undo years of racial exclusion.
He was responding to Freedom Front Plus leader in Parliament Pieter Mulder’s criticism of the policy. Mulder said on Wednesday that such policies excluded white South Africans from jobs and economic participation.
“There was a very deliberate long term programme [during apartheid] to exclude blacks from the economy.
“Now to believe that this can correct itself, I think it is the biggest mistake. It can’t. It is very important that we ensure those that were left outside are brought in and included,” he said.
President Zuma said the signing of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment into law was a step in the right direction that would further ensure that big business complied with empowerment requirements, and that fronting was rooted out.
Growing the economy despite recession
President Zuma also poured cold water to statements from the opposition, where some Members of Parliament claimed that over the past five years, the administration was mismanaged to job losses and an increased debt – which hurt the economy.
In his response, President Zuma said he came into office at a time when South Africa – along with the rest of the world – had just shed over a million jobs due to 2008’s global economic meltdown.
He said at that period, debt ceilings were raised when South Africa decided to increase infrastructure spending to create job opportunities.
“Our government came into office during a crippling recession. As a result of the economic crisis, government had to increase debt to sustain the economy, and in the process, we increased infrastructure spending …”
He said national government debt is expected to reach 45% of the GDP in 2015, adding that this was still relatively low compared to some developed and other emerging-market countries.
“Government’s level of debt was 48% in 1994. This level was reduced to 46% in 1999 and reached the lowest level of 27% of GDP in 2008, before the impact of the global financial and economic crisis. The minister of finance will deal with such matters next week in the budget,” he said.
“We lost many jobs during the global economic crisis as many countries did … there was not mismanagement of any kind. What is important to note, all those jobs have been recovered and the economy has created more jobs…”
As he said in his SONA last week, President Zuma said South Africa did have a good story to tell, and said, however, that more still needed to be done. – SANews.gov.za
