SPEAKING in Parliament on September 13, President Zuma seemed unable to recall his own economic policies. Asked by the opposition what the key components of his nine-point economic plan were, Zuma’s reply was that the list "includes agriculture and many others".It was a response that led opposition MPs to suggest that the president was "clueless" about the content of his own plan. Whatever the merits of that charge, it is revealing that the one priority Zuma would choose to emphasise is agriculture.One of the cardinal rules of economic development is that the role agriculture plays in an economy declines rapidly as the country grows richer. In SA’s case, agriculture — at about 3% — already makes only a modest contribution to GDP; and only employs about 5% of the shockingly small number of South Africans with jobs.These numbers are comparable to those of the most developed countries in the world, and are exceptionally low by the standards of developing countries. It is the result of ...
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