Zuma starts with the good news: growth to nearly treble
The president welcomes agreement on a minimum wage, and says government will train 10,000 plumbers and water agents
The economy was expected to grow 1.3% this year, up from the estimated 0.5% in 2016, President Jacob Zuma said in his state of the nation address on Thursday. Despite the uncertain global economic environment, SA had entered a period of recovery. However the economy was not growing fast enough to create the much-needed jobs. A programme to stimulate economic growth would focus on a few key areas to reignite growth - industrialisation, mining and beneficiation, agriculture, agroprocessing, energy, small and medium enterprises, managing workplace conflict, attracting investment, growing the oceans economy, and tourism. Zuma said there were encouraging signs of labour market stability and he welcomed the agreement reached this week on the national minimum wage and labour market stability. The president reiterated the government’s commitment to the independent power producer programme which would be expanded to other sources of energy including coal and gas in addition to renewable ener...
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