ECONOMIC DIRECTION
LEON LOUW: Gigaba’s overcooked action plan will take SA further off course
‘While the plan has virtually nothing that is pro-growth, it has much to curtail it. Growth is not rocket science’
If you want to understand the government’s economic policy, don’t go away. It works like this: your GPS says you are 200km from your destination. An hour later, you are 300km away, so you drive more resolutely. After the next hour, you have 400km to go.You are bewildered. You blame uncooperative rich whites in big cars. You wave your fist, fasten your seatbelt, spew racist slurs and accelerate.
Another hour down the wide monopoly capital road and you are 500km from your destination. You intensify your efforts. You slam the accelerator to the floor and pump the brakes in corners to the smell of burning rubber, only to find your car, now 600km from home, is low on fuel, has failing brakes and an overheating engine. Your once roadworthy car has junk status. When your car stalls, with steam belching from your front and smoke from your rear, a kindly driver stops.When you tell Gogo the story, she asks: "Did it occur to you that you were driving in the wrong direction?" So, it is with Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s 14-point "inclusive growth action plan", which Reuters calls "ambitious" and BizNews "laughable". Trying to reach your destination by driving away from it is ambitious. Calling the destruction of the vehicle on which progress depends laughable is laughably understated. The 14-point plan follows President Jacob Zuma’s nine-point plan, which he reportedly forgot. Reme...
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