Radical transformation, Ramaphosa style
The presidential hopeful has announced his plan for a ‘New Deal’ to turn SA’s economy around
ANC presidential hopeful Cyril Ramaphosa has outlined his vision for the economy in a speech in Soweto. After establishing the context — the harrowing consequences of apartheid and the more recent harrowing consequences of President Jacob Zuma (not mentioned by name) — he went on to call for a "New Deal" to take the country forward. When Franklin D Roosevelt coined the phrase in the 1930s, he was talking about a giant state-spending programme aimed at taking the US out of depression. Perhaps because he is painfully aware that SA is in no position to spend its way out of its woes, Ramaphosa’s plan has a different character. It does call for a dramatic increase in investment and for the state to scale up infrastructure spending to R1.5trillion. But his "New Deal" appears to be some sort of consensus to be arrived at between government, business and labour on how to spark economic growth.
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