Budget Speech 2017South Africa's growth and transformationTransformation for growth |
To achieve sustained higher growth, there are also more fundamental, more radical transformation measures that are needed.
These relate, in particular, to economic power.
The relationships between labour and capital, rich and poor, black and white, men and women, town and township, urban and rural, still reflect the entrenched legacy of colonialism and apartheid. Wealth is produced and allocated along lines that remain fundamentally unjust. The ownership of assets and the distribution of income is captured by a minority of the population – a situation that is morally wrong and economically unsustainable.
We agree with President Zuma that a new perspective on economic transformation is required. The principles that should guide our agenda for transformation include the following:
| • | The litmus test of our programmes must be what they do to create jobs, eliminate poverty and narrow the inequality gap. |
| • | Transformation must be mass-based, benefiting the most disadvantaged South Africans through the creation of new assets, capabilities and opportunities to build livelihoods. |
| • | We have to mobilise both private and public investment in social and economic infrastructure, new technologies and new activities that help build a modern and diversified economy. |
| • | We must continue to confront cartels and collusion robustly and provide new opportunities for access to markets. |
| • | Transformation must re-shape our cities and build linkages across the rural and urban landscapes, where fragmentation and separation characterised past patterns. |
| • | Transformation must achieve a more balanced structure of ownership and control in our economy. |
| • | Transformation should build on and strengthen democracy, and entrench open, transparent governance and the rule of law. |
| • | Transformation must build self-reliance of South Africans, reject the dependence on debt and protect our fiscal sovereignty. |
| • | Transformation must result in an economy that belongs to all, black and white, where the legacy of race domination is no longer visible. |
In 1969 the ANC resolved that “Our nationalism must not be confused with chauvinism or narrow nationalism of a previous epoch. It must not be confused with the classical drive by an elitist group among the oppressed people to gain ascendancy so that they can replace the oppressor in the exploitation of the masses.”
Transformation must unleash growth, establish a new economic direction, mobilise investment, empower the masses and create new resources for social change.
We still have a long way to go!