Cosatu optimistic, keen to see difference investment promises make

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) could not hide its optimism about the job prospects emanating from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s series of job and investment summits.

Ramaphosa this week opened the Tshwane Automotive Hub at the Ford plant in Pretoria, which was a direct outcome of pledges made during the October 2018 investment summit.

This was punted as evidence that these conferences were not merely talk shops.

The hub and auto-manufacturing plants to be opened in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape mean a possible a 10% rise in car exports.

Cosatu, which is usually critical of government efforts – particularly what it has described as “neoliberal economic policies” – said it was looking forward to the SA Investment Conference, which started yesterday at the Sandton Convention Centre.

Its parliamentary coordinator Matthew Parks said, with about 400,000 new jobseekers each year and the country’s economy trudging along at barely 1% growth, drastically increasing investment levels were critical.

The latest unemployment rate was at 29.2%, an 11-year high.

“For many years a domestic investment strike has hamstrung economic growth and left many families with no source of income.

“Whilst not all the 2018 [conference] targets have been met, we have seen a significant increase in investment inflows.

“According to the South African Reserve Bank, 2019 has seen the highest level of investment inflows in five years,” Parks said.

Parks optimistically explained that the 2018 investment conference had yielded commitments of R300 billion. This year initial commitments had already accrued to the value of R125 billion.

“These will help the government reach the R1.2 trillion 2023 target,” he said.

Political and leadership analyst Dr Mazwe Majola commended the projects Ramaphosa had managed to attract.

However, he was concerned that not much tangible had come out of the conferences in terms of investment and jobs.

“People may sit and talk [but] there is nothing to show that would change people’s lives; there is nothing we can celebrate,” Majola said.

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