Friday, 11 February 2005
Underlines challenge of Under-Development & the need to change accumulation regime
The South African Communist Party (SACP) regards the State of the Nation Address by President Thabo Mbeki as an important moment & speech which starkly captures the key challenges facing our country. We welcome the overall thrust of the speech & its emphasis on the leading role of the state & the parastatal sector in economic growth & development. We welcome the commitment to expand employment in the public service and through the Expanded Public Works Programme. We are also pleased with the record of government in achieving many of the targets set for last year, especially in the delivery of essential services to the poor.
In the view of the SACP, this strategic & leading role by the state is critical in stimulating economic growth & development aimed at job creation, infrastructure development & poverty eradication. The state must use its power, through legislation & regulation, to direct investment by private capital. Lack of investment by private capital is a major constraint on economic growth & development & a manifest failure of the so-called first economy. Market failure is a general feature of the current accumulation regime in South Africa which does not just apply to the steel & chemical industries only as the President noted. It is generalised, structural & systematic market failure which manifests itself in the job loss bloodbath in key sectors of the economy in particular the textile sector, lack of investment in job-creation & ongoing accumulation by a small elite which controls the economy.
For these reasons, it is not sufficient to merely depend on the assumed goodwill of, & possibility of consensus with private capital which is not committed to the people of this country & their needs. Decisive action by government, the workers & the poor is required to change this accumulation regime including transforming the so-called first economy.
We are therefore concerned about the potentially narrow focus on exemptions for small businesses with regard to taxes, levies, as well as central bargaining and other labour arrangements. Indeed, there are many impediments which affect small businesses: lack of access to finance & credit, unnecessary red-tape, lack of effective support institutions, undue emphasis on the cost of living at the expense of a focus on the cost of living, etc. Addressing these impediments must not be conflated with the rolling back of workers' right, thereby creating a two-tier labour market & leaving the so-called first economy untransformed.
In line with the SACP-led financial sector campaign, we welcome the President's announcement on the intention to pass legislation on co-operatives this year & the meeting of the targets of the Financial Sector Charter. This Charter, however, is subject to the overall NEDLAC Financial Sector Summit Agreement of August 2002 which provides a stronger basis for the mobilisation of domestic resources in private hands for state-led economic growth & development. We therefore call on government to play its role in the realisation of this NEDLAC agreement.
We are also pleased with the commitments to speed up the public sector delivery of housing, electricity, water & sanitation. The SACP is concerned that the President did not say enough on what government is doing to accelerate land & agrarian reform in light of the inadequate resources for land reform & the deadline to finalise land restitution claims by December this year. The announcement by President Mbeki of the socio-economic survey of the so-called second economy is welcome & important to understand & appreciate this reality & thereby contribute to promoting sustainable livelihoods. The land reform programme & the socio-economic survey will be points of significant engagement for the SACP in the coming year.
The SACP also specifically welcomes the commitment of the South African government to contribute to the democratisation of Zimbabwe & Swaziland.
We will engage in mass campaigns & in the alliance to ensure that the objectives & challenges set out by the President are met.
Contact
Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara
Head of the Office of the General Secretary
South African Communist Party (SACP)
Tel - 011 339-3621/2,
Fax - 011 339-4244/6880
Cell - 083 651 0271
Email - mazibuko@sacp.org.za
Website - www.sacp.org.za