PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has revised his job creation statement in his Sona address.
He said it was meant to focus on job creation and has given rise to important debate. He acknowledged the state has a clear role to play in job creation through initiatives.
“Government wants to unleash the potential of the private sector so they can create more jobs. We do not accept we must make a choice between a developmental state and a dynamic and agile private sector which work together and this, for us, represent a mixed economy,” he said.
In his address last Thursday, he said everyone knew government didn’t have the capacity to create jobs but created an environment for the private sector to do so.
He said he was encouraged by constructive criticism but wasn’t going to waste energy responding to insults. He reminded the house how the 2008 global financial crisis, declining commodity prices and recently, state capture affected our steady economic recovery.
He said Covid-19 also caused severe damage to the economy and it will take centuries to repair.
“We cannot escape that our economy and society are still defined and scarred by a colonial and apartheid past. Despite the progress in the last 28 years, material divides between black and white, men and women, rural and urban, still persist.
“Fixing the economy is our most pressing challenge and essential to progress in almost every other area of life.”
Ramaphosa said by recognising the role of business in job creation, government was not abdicating its central role of co-ordinating, planning and guiding economic growth.
He lauded his administration for its response to the pandemic. He said some saw despair when MPs debated his address, but he was seeing progress in initiatives.
“Where some create doubt, we see renewed confidence.”
Government has supported the State Capture Commission to complete its work, and enabled the commission to share information with investigators and prosecutors.
He said disciplinary action against officials implicated in procurement irregularities was being taken and they have started to recover billions in looted funds. Capable leadership at previously-captured state-owned entities and public institutions have reversed the decay.
He also announced removal of constraints for small businesses to get financial assistance.
