President Jacob Zuma
President Jacob Zuma should use the opportunity provided by his looming State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on Tuesday to “send a strong message” to the local and international markets that his government would do “everything possible” to turn the economy around, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) has said.
Seifsa CEO Kaizer Nyatsumba commented in a statement that the SoNA – which would come days after the downgrading of South Africa’s credit rating to “near-junk” status by ratings agency Standard and Poor’s – offered the President a “golden opportunity” to indicate the urgent steps government would take to arrest the country’s economic decline.
He said it was critical that Zuma “spelled out” clear actions that government would take to stimulate economic growth, support manufacturing and protect existing jobs.
“The biggest challenge confronting South Africa today is economic, and not political. Therefore, the SoNA presents the President with a great opportunity to send a message to the country and the world that his government is alive to our economic challenges and that it will do everything possible to turn the situation around,” said Nyatsumba.
The Seifsa head added that government needed to work hard to build a strong partnership between itself, business and labour, while acknowledging that its primary responsibility was that of creating a climate conducive for job creation, with business focusing on enhancing its international competitiveness and, in the process, creating more jobs.
Nyatsumba believed Zuma should pay particular attention to clarifying the planned interventions of government to stimulate growth in the economy; stabilise the labour sector; stimulate manufacturing; and enhance its partnership with business.
He added that it was critical for government to provide incentives to enable local manufacturers to be competitive, calling also on National Treasury to ensure that the necessary steps were taken to protect local businesses from unfair foreign competition.
“It is our hope that the President will use the opportunity presented by the SoNA to not only reaffirm the government’s commitment to the National Development Plan (NDP), but also to spell out concretely how the NDP and its ambitious infrastructure plans will be rolled out as a matter of extreme urgency.
“South Africa certainly cannot afford yet another downgrade by the international ratings agencies, nor can it afford another shrinkage in our economy,” Nyatsumba noted.