President Jacob Zuma President Jacob Zuma
Staff Writer
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma and senior cabinet ministers met business leaders and labour representatives at the Union Buildings and announced a new stage of working closely together to create meaningful change in South Africa.
Business and labour representatives announced their commitment to plans to transform the economy and create jobs.
Zuma described the move as very positive and said there would be short-term urgent interventions. Among the commitments are a joint private and public sector fund to support small business, in particular black entrepreneurs.
He commended business for partnering with government in taking the country forward and thanked labour for joining the initiative with a positive spirit.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa described the meeting as ushering in a new era of hope, saying the foundation was being laid for how government and business could work together.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said South Africa had “jointly owned” its economic problem, and what was good about the meeting was there was a joint commitment to fix it. More South Africans now understood what a downgrade was and how it impacted on ordinary people, small and big business.
He said the coming visits of ratings agencies would be met by a united team of government, business and labour.
“What is important about the outcome of today’s meeting is we are speaking with one voice,” Ramaphosa said.
Zuma said he had mandated Gordhan to lead a process of engaging with the private sector in particular to map out a strategy to grow the economy.
Business and labour leaders had joined Gordhan on a roadshow abroad early this year to promote the country and prevent a possible credit ratings’ downgrade, Zuma said.
“The hard work is paying off and we saw the evidence this weekend with the announcement by Moody’s. In affirming the sovereign credit rating on Friday, Moody’s ratings agency noted that South Africa was approaching a turning point after years of weak growth. This is confirmation that our collaborative approach has been successful,” he said.
While the economy had recovered from the global financial crisis, the economic growth has been much weaker than previously anticipated.
Initiatives to help grow the economy included a joint private and public sector fund for Small Business Support with roughly 50:50 contributions by the partners; expanding government and private sector co-investment in infrastructure; projects to use the Independent Power Producer model for infrastructure investments; and exploring the possibility of private sector investment in state-owned companies.