Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has warned that South Africa is struggling with a triple deficit: its stubbornly high current-account deficit, a fiscal deficit and a trust deficit. But he has also given the assurance that government is planning to do what it can to deal with all three, mostly under the aegis of the National Development Plan (NDP).
The new Finance Minister has also given a firm guarantee to a sceptical business community that the new Cabinet is fully behind the implementation of the plan, revealing that President Jacob Zuma is personally meeting with individual Ministers to seek assurances that their strategies and plans are aligned with the NDP. The President is “sitting with each Ministry to see how their plans, which are encapsulated in the Medium-Term Strategic Framework, talk to the NDP”.
Government’s seriousness regarding the implementation of the NDP can also be seen, he avers, in the appointment of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa as chairperson of the National Planning Commission and the “deployment of the most senior Minister in government, Minister Jeff Radebe” as the Minister in The Presidency overseeing planning, performance, monitoring and evaluation.
“So [the NDP] is being driven at the highest level,” Nene stresses, while adding that priority is also being given to “normalising” the labour environment and to dealing with constraints, such as the electricity shortages.
That said, he refuses to join those calling for an overhaul of the Labour Relations Act, saying he “shudders to think” what the labour climate would have been like had South Africa not had its current labour legislation. Instead, government and business have a responsibility to understand the underlying causes of the current tensions so that these can be addressed.
Through ongoing interactions, Nene believes the trust deficit can be narrowed. But he cautions that South Africa will struggle to wrest itself from its current low-growth condition unless a new partnership is forged.