General: Anniversary statement sends mixed messages

In his first 8 January anniversary statement as ANC president, SA’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa sent some surprisingly mixed messages. Reaffirming a commitment in his closing speech at last month’s elective conference – that expropriation without compensation will be among ‘a range of mechanisms’ used by government to ‘accelerate the redistribution of land to black South Africans’ – he said that the ‘necessary support’ will be provided to ‘ensure’ that land reform in general ‘is accompanied by an increase in agricultural production and food security’. All well and good, comments Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. But Ramaphosa chose to overlook the connection between land ownership, agricultural development and private sector financial institutions when committing government to finding ‘new approaches to (their) regulation and licensing’ – in keeping with an elective conference resolution to also ‘accelerate’ radical economic transformation. It would be useful, says Saxby, if ruling party supporters were helped to understand at least some of the uncomfortable truths standing in the way of achieving these objectives.

Given agriculture’s ‘enormous potential’ to ‘promote industrialisation, create employment and transform … (the country’s) economy’, there are apparently plans afoot to improve ‘the sustainability of rural communities’ by ‘modernising agricultural production’ and developing ‘a substantial pool of skills’ in agro-processing and ‘the manufacture of agricultural inputs’. As Legalbrief Today has already reported, against that backdrop the Deputy President intends initiating a ‘study’ to see what can be done to reverse a tendency for farms to become ‘derelict’ when ‘returned’ to the descendants of communities from which they were taken under colonial and apartheid rule. In his view, an ‘agricultural revolution’ is needed to ‘change things for the better’ – so that land reform has ‘a productive outcome’ (Business Day). Presumably, this will require some level of input and support from the very private sector financial institutions about to face increasing ‘transformation’ pressure?

Not to worry: according to the Deputy President, his party intends ‘urgently’ forging ‘a social pact between government, labour, business and communities to reignite economic growth and accelerate the process of transformation’. That sounds tediously familiar. However, the process will now require ‘specific commitments’ from each of the social partners regarding their respective ‘contributions’ to promoting ‘far greater levels of investment and job creation’, focusing on ways to address youth unemployment – the ‘devastating’ impact of which Ramaphosa described as ‘a cause for major concern’. With the aim of tackling the country’s critical skills shortage and the ‘lack of work experience and readiness’ generally associated with most matriculants and many college and university graduates, ‘effective’ public employment, internship, job placement, youth entrepreneurship and ‘set-aside’ programmes will be prioritised. The Deputy President referred to these interventions, phased-in free post-school education for the poor and government’s commitment to sustaining its ‘significant investment in basic education’ in the context of another ‘revolution’ – this time in skills. He said nothing about the budget reprioritisation necessary to fund them given shrinking tax revenues.

On the vexed issue of corruption, according to Ramaphosa ‘mechanisms for the appointment of individuals to senior government positions, state-owned entities and law enforcement agencies will be strengthened to improve transparency, prevent undue influence and ensure (the) adequate vetting of candidates’. This, too, we have heard before – with very little evidence of meaningful change. ‘We must work to restore the credibility of public institutions,’ the Deputy President said, adding that ‘the investigation and prosecution of those responsible’ for ‘state capture’ and other corrupt activities will also be prioritised. Conceding that, together with these practices, ‘institutional instability, policy inconsistency … (and the) poor performance of state-owned enterprises’ have ‘severely undermined’ the economy, Ramaphosa spoke of the need for ‘fortified’, ‘efficient’, ‘effectively coordinated’ intelligence, policing and prosecutorial authorities with the ‘professionalism’ necessary to ‘restore’ the integrity and legitimacy of the state. And how is that to be financed one cannot help but wonder. Yet plans for addressing policy inconsistency did not feature once in an anniversary statement that, if anything, may even have compounded prevailing economic and political uncertainty.