Faster growth is needed in SA to beat poverty, warns Mbeki

from The Herald

Patrick Cull POLITICAL EDITOR

THE government would have to “redouble its efforts” to increase the pace of economic growth and job creation and so “raise the floor of prosperity that must go with our democracy”, President Thabo Mbeki said in his New Year‘s message.

Mbeki made only one reference to the crisis facing the ANC following the election of Jacob Zuma as the party‘s president last month, saying South Africa would face “new tasks and challenges” as a result of the decisions taken at Polokwane.

“We must respond to all these bearing in mind the national goal our country has set itself – the goal of ensuring that our democracy remains unwavering in the pursuit of the objective of a better life for all our people,” Mbeki said.

Noting the economy had grown from “strength to strength” last year, Mbeki said the challenge of reducing poverty and inequality remained.

“We will also have to work to ensure that we improve the effectiveness of all our other interventions directed at accelerating our advance towards the achievement of a better life for all our people.”

Mbeki said the economy faced important challenges such as the higher inflation rate, driven by high crude oil and food prices and resulting in higher interest rates, along with a sustained deficit in the balance of trade that indicated South Africa was importing more than it exported.

The focus on raising workers‘ skills levels also had to be maintained.

Mbeki said the foundations that had been laid would have to be used to speed up access, especially of the poor, to adequate housing, affordable health care, free basic services, education, water, sanitation and, electricity, while at the same time ensuring the system of social grants reached the people most in need, “to protect as many people as possible from falling into abject poverty”.

This would mean a continued focus on improving the performance of the government, with special emphasis on local government, he said.