Is the latest ANC economic action plan a bid to trick voters?

The lack of economic growth is not due to a lack of strategies, but rather implementing them, suggesting that the issue lies with the “jockey”, rather than the “horse”, when it comes to the economic troubles.

Political analyst Prof Dirk Kotzé said President Cyril Ramaphosa has introduced several economic growth plans since taking office in 2018, but these have often been repackaged without delivering substantial results.

Election strategy?

The latest ANC economic action plan, announced by the president on Monday, appears to be an election strategy aimed at recovering from the ANC’s losses in the May 2024 polls.

Dawie Roodt, chief economist at Efficient Group, criticised Ramaphosa for the prolonged economic stagnation in the country.

In response to the ANC’s new 10-point intervention plan to revive the struggling economy, Roodt argued the government has failed to concentrate on the right issues.

“It’s not the horse; the problem must be the jockey, it seems, and I think that’s the issue. The ANC must be the problem,” Roodt said.

The right noises were made now and in the past and different plans were introduced, but the economy remained stagnant due to a lack of implementation.

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“This is an economic emergency without a doubt. If you want to point a finger at somebody, a good place to start is the president,” Roodt said.

‘Not very different from existing plans’

Kotzé said among Ramaphosa’s economic growth plans were the presidential economic recovery plan, the infrastructure recovery plan, Eskom recovery plan and Operation Vulindlela.

“To a large extent, he was repackaging these plans, but in essence they are the same thing and there is nothing new, which hasn’t been there in the past,” Kotzé said.

The ANC had initiated the new plan because the local government elections are approaching.

“The party wants to demonstrate to the public they do have a plan, although it is actually not very different from existing plans,” Kotzé said.

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Interventions

Announcing the plan in Boksburg, Ramaphosa said the ANC had identified specific interventions to advance the vision of the National Development Plan, along with the government’s economic programme and the Medium-Term Development Plan.

He said interventions are intended to support the government’s proposed implementation plan on growth and inclusion.

Among the interventions was the use of electricity tariffs and investment in transmission infrastructure to drive economic activity, accelerate the recovery of the freight and logistics sector, rebuild the chrome and manganese industry and improve the state’s capacity to manage major projects.

There would be an effort to drive local economic development, investment in local infrastructure and labour activation, as well as public employment initiatives.

The government would expand support for small and medium enterprises, grow provincial economies, diversify trade partners and ensure effective budget and macroeconomic coordination.

Previously, economic strategies were introduced, but they did little to break the back of the country’s economic downturn, except when former president Thabo Mbeki consistently achieved growth rates of between 4% and 5%.

But since that time, the country’s growth has barely reached 1%.

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