Too many problems, lets start with jobs and growth - John Steenhuisen

POLITICAL NEWS - South Africa is in crisis with 27 000 murders a year, kids who can't read for meaning, deaths because of bad health care, corruption - just a few examples of an extremely abnormal state of affairs.

Addressing the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday, DA leader John Steenhuisen, said even if the DA had an outright majority in parliament, South Africa is in such dire straits that any government would need to focus its efforts on a small number of critical priorities.

"And so we have made a clear strategic choice. Our single priority is economic growth and job creation. Growth and jobs.
"I’ll say it again: Growth and Jobs.

"Because the economy is the engine that pulls the whole train forward. If we cannot get it going, nothing else will move. And so, five years from now, we will judge ourselves on two simple metrics: is growth up, and is unemployment down?

"Let me be clear: I am not going to allow anything to get in the way of ensuring growth goes up and unemployment comes down. If that means causing a degree of distress inside the GNU, then so be it," Steenhuisen said.

Steenhuisen said the people of South Africa are more important than the feelings of politicians.
"And right now, the government is not gripping the economic situation with the urgency it demands. The disjointed processes of government lumber on ineffectually while the country’s situation cries out for action.

He said South Africa is facing a very real fiscal crisis.

"Over the past 10 years we have squandered half a trillion Rand bailing out failing state-owned enterprises. Now revenues are again falling short of projections, and we have used up some of our reserves.
"Meanwhile we confront a situation in which it may be impossible to keep paying for all of our teachers. It may be impossible to save the Post Office. And the list of things it may be impossible to continue funding will grow longer.

"To make matters worse, growth is anaemic. We registered just 0,4% in the last quarter, after 10 years of real-term per-capita GDP contraction.

And while we have made strides to boost growth via Operation Vulindlela, the truth is it is not enough, and not fast enough."

Steenhuisen said his colleague in Treasury, Ashor Sarupen, and his colleague in DTIC, Andrew Whitfield, have worked up a set of immediate actions the government can take to bring spending down and to increase confidence to lower the cost of borrowing.

Some of the urgent actions to contain spending include:

A comprehensive, bottom-up spending review across government, to get rid of duplication and stop spending on programmes that don’t deliver measurable value.
The conversation of the SRD grant into a Permanent Job Seekers Grant.
The containment of public sector wage growth to CPI levels.

Some of the urgent actions to increase confidence and bring down the cost of borrowing include:

Setting deadlines for the restructuring of ports, logistics and freight rail, and moving ahead with the concessioning of the Cape Town port.
Bringing in private sector expertise to increase capacity at the Competition Commission Mergers and Acquisitions approvals are taking 24 months. The Commission’s performance plan requires them to take no more than 12 months. Our competitors take 4.
Taking up the World Bank’s offer of a Regulatory Impact Assessment. They would do it for free, and it could free up businesses to invest, grow and employ.
Getting SARS immediately to place Customs Officials inside all cigarette manufacturing facilities for monitoring production, which proved to be a success in 2019. National Treasury data shows that placing Customs Officials in manufacturing sites for 3 months resulted in an additional 1.06bn cigarettes being declared to SARS and an extra R900m excise being paid.
Establishing an immediate review of all Parliamentary Master Plans to determine their performance against their intended objectives, and whether they are creating excessive constraints on productivity. Where possible, urgent amendments should be made to stimulate rapid growth that contributes to fiscal stability

Long term growth plans

He added that short term measures are not enough and also listed the DA's long term growth plans for the state departments under their control.

Steenhuisen said economic sentiment has taken a positive turn because of the work that the DA is already doing in the Government of National Unity."But we now need to move from increased confidence, to actual, measurable economic growth."

Steenhuisen details DA's approach to GNU relations

He said the DA will always look for common ground within the GNU, but that their ministers will not shy away from conflict when confronted with serious and lasting damage to the country or Constitution.

He seemed to softened his stance on the Bela Bill, and did not say that the DA would leave the GNU if President Cyril Ramaphosa, whom he had met about the bill, signed it into law. He did say that if it was signed the DA would consider its options on the way forward.
Steenhuisen said the same applies to the NHI.

"If we can find solutions collaboratively we would be delighted. If we can’t, we will pursue the interests of the South African people through every other legal means at our disposal.

"It is of critical importance to understand that conflict over policy in a multi-party government like the GNU is normal and indeed necessary in a democracy.

"And it is not necessarily an existential threat to the government.

"But that doesn’t mean the DA would never walk away under any circumstances.
The bottom line for the DA is an economy that grows and creates jobs. If the GNU can’t do that, there is no point being part of it."