‘Private sector creates most jobs’: Ramaphosa stands by his Sona

President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed confidence in his Cabinet, but lectured those who doubted the role of the private sector in job creation, even alluding to a socialist economy like China relying on business to provide employment.

Ramaphosa almost ignored Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen’s call for him to fire his Cabinet, merely alluding to it.

“I preside over a Cabinet of ministers that are committed to their responsibilities, ministers in whom I have the greatest of confidence and from whom the people of this country have the highest expectations,” he said.

Replying on the last day of the debate on his State of the Nation Address (Sona) at the Cape Town City Hall, where parliament sat yesterday, he did not back down on his statement that the private sector should lead in job creation.

He was criticised for the statement by the ANC’s leftist partners, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), and later the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

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He said even China mobilised the private sector to create jobs and to be where it was today, the world’s second-biggest economy.

He gave them a practical example, where the number of people employed in SA’s public sector increased from 1.9 million in 2002 to 2.8 million in 2017 and over the same period, the private sector increased its numbers from 8.2 million to 13.5 million.

“South Africa is not alone in seeking to rapidly expand our productive capacity by unleashing the potential of the private sector,” he said.

“One just needs to look, for example, at the approach taken by China under Deng Xiaoping to mobilise private capital and promote private enterprise to meet the country’s developmental needs.

He cited this week’s article by Professor Tshilidzi Marwala of the University of Johannesburg, who wrote: “In 2018, 87% of urban employment in China was from the private sector compared to 18% in 1995. At the same time, the total [gross domestic product] increased from $734 billion [about R11.1 trillion] in 1995 to $13 trillion in 2018.”

He reiterated his Sona assertion that “the state has a clear role to play in job creation” – through state-owned enterprises, public employment programmes, industrial policy, competition policy, infrastructure investment and, indeed, through the employment of the public service itself.

“The reality in our country – as in most other countries – is that the private sector creates the most jobs. [It] employs some three quarters of South Africa’s workers and accounts for over two-thirds of investment and research and development expenditure.”

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On why those involved in graft were not yet prosecuted Ramaphosa’s answer was simple.

“Let me be clear, yet again, on the matter of prosecution. It is not within the power of the president – and it shouldn’t be within the power of the president – to initiate criminal proceedings against anyone. That is the sole responsibility of the relevant director of public prosecutions.

“Our task as the executive is to capacitate the [National Prosecuting Authority] and make sure it has all the resources that it needs to prosecute wrongdoing as an independent authority.”