Decisive leadership required to reverse economic decline

8 December 2021  

ActionSA has noted the revelation by StatsSA that the South African economy has declined by a staggerring1.5% in the third quarter of 2021. Sadly, this revelation is unsurprising, as it follows last week's further revelation about the growth of unemployment. An economy that is not growing, simply cannot create or even retain jobs. Change is needed, and urgently so. It is an indictment on the present leaders of our beautiful country and economy.

Following last week’s alarming announcements in this regard, this is the second indication of the impact of the economic destruction caused by the violence and looting which took place in Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal in July of this year.

To compound the multiple difficulties facing South Africans, the statistics authority further confirms the economic harm caused by the government’s “tighter COVID-19 lockdown restrictions”. Indeed it is plain to see that locking down industries and residents under such draconian measures, has become the national government’s “go-to method” of dealing with the Coronavirus Pandemic.

The revelation that “…six of the ten industries recorded a decline in production in the third quarter, with agriculture, trade and manufacturing the hardest hit” is most disturbing as these are the job-intensive sectors we need the most. This must be urgently reversed, and immediately addressed.

The ANC has repeatedly shown that it is incapable of growing the economy and defeating unemployment. Its many business-unfriendly policies are a strain on the economy, and their friends and family in COSATU effectively exercise extra-constitutional veto powers. In governments involving ActionSA, no trade union will have veto powers over our economic policies. We will not allow that. This country must be governed by leaders and not by Trade Unions who do not serve the interests of their members, who remain at their mercy.

The coalition governments that ActionSA and other parties are finalising across the Gauteng Metros will have to ensure that they quickly become centres of opportunity and job creation. In order to do so, these governments must:

remove red tape and make it easier for businesses to succeed;

support entrepreneurs so that the private sector can flourish and create much-needed jobs:

ensuring a reliable supply of electricity in order to revitalise the job-intensive manufacturing sector and to re-start our now abandoned factories across the country:

Incentivise the private sector to take over abandoned industrial areas such as Babalegi, Ga-Rankuwa, Mogwase, Qwa-Qwa, Ekandustria, and many other areas, closed down by COSATU over the last 27 years:

Revive job intensive and investment attracting capital projects such as the Joburg Inner City Rejuvenation project which resulted in plans for 14 500 affordable accommodations, 21 000 construction sector jobs, and R32 billion in investment;

Control illegal immigration and our borders, holding the Department of Home Affairs accountable for failing law-abiding South Africans and legal immigrants;

Ensure that law enforcement agencies and SARS play their part in ensuring that South Africa does not continue to be a dumping ground for counterfeit goods; and

modernise & professionalise the administrations and public service;

I am pleased to also announce that, in order to truly hold accountable those responsible for the economic destruction, violence, and looting in KZN and Gauteng, ActionSA’s legal team - led by Adv Gillian Benson - will announce, in the next few weeks, progress it has made in our groundbreaking Class Action Lawsuit against President Ramaphosa, and the various members of the Security Cluster, such as Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, and the ANC.

StatsSA has now firmly linked this dark moment in our country to the economic decline, and South Africans require accountability and some form of compensation. ActionSA will ensure that every effort is made to achieve this.

After successfully spearheading the ANC’s removal from power in the Gauteng Metros, ActionSA will work tirelessly to create conditions conducive to job creation and economic growth in these local governments. We are confident that, with effective performance at local government level, voters will lend us their support, and they will do the same, in larger numbers, in 2024.

We will stop at nothing to ensure that the is removing from National and Provincial government in 2024. The voters agreed with our message in this local election, and we are confident they will do the same in 2024 – in larger numbers.

The solutions to the economic growth crisis are ready, at hand, and must be urgently executed. Everywhere that ActionSA is involved, we will ensure that they are, indeed, executed without delay.

Issued by Herman Mashaba, President, ActionSA, 8 December 2021