DEPUTY President Paul Mashatile has repeated the song from ANC that the party is concerned that the economy is growing slowly.
Mashatile was speaking at the Batseta Winter Conference held in Sun City, North West on Monday, 12 June, where he said that the government alone will not solve the challenges in the economy.
The deputy president said the ANC-led government has pursued policies over the past 29 years that have helped transform the economy.
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"The policy interventions have resulted in the transformation of key sectors of the economy and indeed society. We are, however, concerned that the economy is not growing at the rate that results in many being absorbed by the economy," he said.
He said manufacturing and the financial sector were the main growth engines on the supply side of the economy. The demand side was boosted by exports, household, government and investment spending
"There are certain things that we are doing right, and this is albeit the global economic challenges.
"We therefore need to focus on the things that we are doing right and be more innovative if we are to grow a sustainable and inclusive economy," Mashatile said.
He said the Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Plan announced by President Ramaphosa last October remains the pillar of ANC 's journey toward a new, inclusive economy.
"Our goal is to make a permanent and decisive break with an economic trajectory characterised by low and declining growth, the exclusion of women, young people and people with disabilities from the mainstream economy, falling per capita incomes, low investment, as well as high and deeply entrenched levels of inequality, poverty and unemployment," he said.
Mashatile said before Covid-19, there were times when economic growth averaged about 3,8% for more than a decade, when the country experienced the fastest growth of the black middle class, and when the government was able to launch massive social insurance programmes to keep the poor out of poverty.
He said work would continue to improve energy security, including through the restructuring of Eskom, including its unbundling, the inclusion of up to 100 megawatts of power generation, and the implementation of a just transition to a low-carbon economy.
"Our immediate task must be to achieve the following objectives; job creation and the reduction in unemployment, public employment programmes to complement our job creation efforts, skills development to ensure that when the economy recovers, we do not import skills, and the provision of income support for the most vulnerable," said the deputy president.
