14 June 1996
The South African Communist Party welcomes the government's Growth, Employment and Redistribution Macro-Economic Policy. We fully back the objectives of this macro-economic strategy and note, in particular, the following key features:
Contrary to certain attempts to use the macro-economic debate to shift government away from its electoral mandate, the strategy announced today firmly and explicitly situates itself as a framework for the RDP.
Resisting free market dogmatism, the strategy envisages a key economic role for the public sector, including in productive investment.
On the restructuring of state assets, the strategy reaffirms and reinforces the bilateral (between government and unions) National Framework Agreement process.
On labour markets, the new marco-economic-strategy envisages the extension of a regulated market and it introduces an innovative approach to flexibility. It rejects laisser-faire market-driven flexibility and instead call for negotiated regional and sectoral flexibility.
The most important contribution of the strategy is its consistent endeavour to integrate different element of policy and, in particular, it provides a clear frame work within which monetary and interest rate policy must work.
The SACP, in the context of our tripartite alliance with the ANC and COSATU, intends to take forward discussions, elaboration and debate on this path-breaking macro-economic strategy. All the questions of detail and of implementation require ongoing scrutiny. We have every intention of making an ongoing and constructive contribution to this process.
Issued by: SACP HQ