The African National Congress’s (ANC’s) National Executive Committee (NEC) has called for the establishment of the Economic War Room in the Presidency to coordinate cross-government performance monitoring and publish regular scorecards on progress, as it assured that the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report on Tembisa Hospital will be acted on.

Last week, the SIU revealed in its probe into the hospital that three coordinated syndicates are responsible for the looting of over R2-billion from the its coffers.

Closing the three-day NEC meeting in Gauteng, ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa said professionalisation and merit-based appointments are going to be non-negotiable.

He offered the ANC NEC’s support for the implementation of the Public Service Professionalisation Framework, which aims to ensure that the public administration is skilled, ethical and insulated from factional politics.

He said corruption corrodes competitiveness.

“…we therefore insist on consequence management, lifestyle audits and enforcement of integrity standards across the public sector,” he added.

He said the SIU reports are proof that the party is serious about fighting corruption.

He also stated that governance reform is not only about compliance.

“It is about restoring public confidence and trust and enabling the State to lead investment and industrialisation effectively. Economic transformation is the moral and strategic mission of the African National Congress.

With coordinated industrial policy, strong institutions and an innovation-driven growth strategy, the nation can reclaim its role as Africa’s industrial leader,” Ramaphosa said during the meeting.

He noted that the capacity of the State to deliver on projects requires “serious” engineering, financial and project management capabilities that need to be rebuilt.

“We will want to focus on this at all layers of government – national, provincial and especially local government. We need to rebuild and reform State-owned enterprises (SOEs) to be effective developmental instruments.

“We are beginning to see progress in some our SOEs that are improving their performance and attracting talented and competent people. Efficient and well-governed SOEs are vital to economic growth and national competitiveness,” he said.

REIGNITING GROWTH

Meanwhile, he announced the ANC’s ten priority interventions, which aims to reignite economic growth amid persisting low economic growth, high unemployment and global trade instability.

The ANC will develop a sustainable budget negotiation strategy in the context of the Government of National Unity (GNU).

Ramaphosa said poverty, unemployment and the high cost of living affecting South Africans is unacceptable. To tackle this, he said the ANC will align fiscal, monetary, trade and industrial policy, and mobilise development finance institutions and pension funds for productive investment.

“In the course of this, we will craft innovative financing mechanisms and processes that will enable us to fund the key catalytic infrastructure projects,” he added.

The ANC is looking at electricity tariffs and investment in transmission infrastructure to drive economic activity, while accelerating the recovery of the country’s freight and logistics sector.

Ramaphosa said focus will be on finalising chrome and manganese export tariffs, implementing defensive duties on dumped imports, and expanding alloys and battery precursor production.

Focus will also be on improving the capacity of the State to manage major projects and address infrastructure delays.

Other focus areas for the party includes driving local economic development and investment in local infrastructure, with a particular focus on townships, rural areas and small towns.

It also punted the establishment of local economic development technical units, labour activation initiatives, public employment, and expanding SMME support and investment by Development Finance Institutions.

Outside of the main economic centres, focus will be on labour-absorptive sectors, such as agro-processing, light manufacturing, cannabis and textiles.

Ramaphosa promised that the country’s trade partners will be diversified, while participation is strengthened in the African Continental Free Trade Area and he assured that the impact of tariff and non-tariff barriers will be addressed.