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FF+’s economic recovery plan
The plan is leveraged on skills transfer to empower beneficiaries, sustain growth and create jobs.
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – FEBRUARY 13: FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald at the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on February 13, 2020 in Cape Town, South Africa. The State Of The Nation of the President of South Africa is an annual event in which the President reports on the status on the nation, highlights achievements, flags challenges and outlines strategies that will be undertaken to unlock developments interventions for the coming financial year. (Photo by Gallo Images/Jeffrey Abrahams)
The country’s economy needs a serious rejig to remodel it for growth, job creation and to attract investment, while government spending should be limited, Freedom Front Plus (FF+) says.
This is part of the FF+’s economic recovery plan which, the party said, could take the country out of the economic sinkhole.
Leveraged skills
The plan is leveraged on skills transfer to empower beneficiaries, sustain growth and create jobs. According to FF+ leader Dr Pieter Groenewald, the skills transfer would replace black economic empowerment (BEE) and would be more universally acceptable than the BEE policy.
The plan, announced by Groenewald in Pretoria yesterday, was backed by independent experts such as political economist Professor Jannie Rossouw from Wits Business School, and economist Mike Holland, director of economic research company, PriceMetrics.
They helped compile the document which recommended steps to stimulate economic growth in the short term. Groenewald said the challenge was to restore South Africa’s economic growth, which had deteriorated had over time from 3% a year to around 1% a year currently.
He said at a sustained growth rate of 1% a year, unemployment, poverty, skewed income and wealth distribution will continue as the population growth rate was 1.5% per annum.
“The adoption and implementation of a new economic recovery plan and policy will help to avert the possibility of South Africa being forced to approach the International Monetary Fund for a loan,” he said.
The plan proposed a purpose-driven skills transfer, for the government to withdraw entirely from SAA and a reduction of the personal and company tax.
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Policy
“The policy of BEE has resulted in the empowerment of a small black elite where the wealth is passed around rather than created. The FF+ is of the opinion that prosperity cannot be created through the redistribution of wealth,” Groenewald said.
The party also proposed the review of unnecessary regulations that restricted economic growth. “A free market is the only ways to fully unlock, create, promote and protect economic value,” he said.
Rossouw said there was a need to address social grant expenditure, interest on government debt and civil service remuneration. Groenewald planned to take the plan to President Cyril Ramaphosa and get input from the portfolio committee on trade industry and competition and treasury.
READ MORE: ‘Afrikaners are tired of taking the blame,’ says FF+ leader Groenewald
– ericn@citizen.co.za
