Lekota blames current leadership for SA’s economic decline

“As long as we have people in leadership who do not have a clear vision of where they want to see this country, in another 20 years’ time South Africa’s GDP will be the fifth largest on the continent.” These are the words of Mosiuoa Lekota, president of the Congress of the People (COPE).

In a media statement, Lekota said South Africa’s leadership vacuum is costing its economy dearly as the country continues to lag behind other developing economies around the world.

Tommy Ferreira of PSG Northcliff and co-founder of the Northcliff Investor’s Club agreed with Lekota on South Africa’s declining economy.

“One of our basic problems is the budget deficit,” Ferreira said.

“We’ve got a week rand and current account deficit. With the two deficits there is a drag on the economy and that could be sorted out through addressing jobs and with the help of the private sector,” he argued.

Lekota, however, maintained that the South African economy will not fair better for as long as the African National Congress (ANC) is still in power.

“With the ANC and its alliance partners in charge, South Africa will never realise its full potential, as we still cannot get a sound policy framework like the National Development Plan (NDP) off the ground because some of the ANC’s partners, still espouse pre-Cold War economic policies that have failed in every part of the globe,” Lekota explained.

He criticised President Jacob Zuma’s leadership and his sense of humour and argued that South Africa is lagging behind other African countries.

“Even countries like Malawi, that [president Jacob Zuma] likes to poke fun at, grew at more than six percent in 2013,” he reckoned.

One could argue that South Africa’s economy has sustained serious injuries under Zuma’s government and this has become ammunition for opposition parties to use against him and the ANC.