JOHN STEENHUISEN: A flawed growth plan
The government’s growth plan just won’t cut it. What SA needs is a plan that encourages investment by ensuring true economic freedom
I’m sorry to break this to you, but the president’s economic recovery and reconstruction plan isn’t going to do the trick. Even if implemented to perfection by a government miraculously free of corruption, it’s not going to unleash growth at the scale required to fix poverty, unemployment, inequality and debt. It’s rooted in a failed ideology that keeps the boot of the state on the neck of the economy.
The only way to grow the economy is through increased investment in productive enterprises. Most of that will have to come from foreign investors, as we have a low rate of domestic savings and growing debt that is crowding out domestic investment. Yet foreign investors have plenty of destinations available and are wary of overly controlling governments — especially erratic, irrational ones...
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