'Time to get policy ducks in a row' — Garth Strachan
Policy uncertainty and the lack of government coherence are major factors in South Africa's failure to industrialise at the required rate, says SA's industrialisation tsar
Policy uncertainty and the lack of government coherence are major factors in South Africa's failure to industrialise at the required rate, says the country's industrialisation tsar, Garth Strachan. Government industrialisation programmes are barely scratching the surface of South Africa's 27.1% unemployment rate. "They're not creating jobs as quickly or on the scale that is required," says Strachan, 65, a veteran ANC and SACP cadre who is the Department of Trade and Industry's deputy director-general in charge of industrial development. His frustration boiled over while he was addressing a World Bank seminar at the University of the Witwatersrand's business school last week. "The lack of policy coherence and programme alignment in government actually is a very big constraint," he said. His remarks came after then Eskom CEO Brian Molefe torpedoed the government's independent power producer procurement programme last year. He shocked investors, not to mention Strachan himself, when he...
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