Honourable House Chairperson,
The ACDP celebrates all workers who have given their blood, sweat and tears in the building of our country. South Africa over the last two to three decades, has experienced a significant decline in industrialisation. Manufacturing’s contribution to GDP shrank from around 22% in the late 1980s to roughly 12% today. This decline is accompanied by a weakened industrial base, and a reduction in manufacturing jobs and capital, resulting in less jobs for our millions of unemployed workers.
The ANC’s policy shift from import-substitution industrialisation (during apartheid) to the GEAR (Growth Employment and Redistribution) framework, which focused on export-led growth and trade liberalisation, and a failure to implement the requisite structural economic changes, has led to de-industrialisation, with the manufacturing sector’s share of GDP declining.
South Africa’s reneging on its non-aligned foreign policy stance, between Israel and Hamas, has placed us under international scrutiny, causing the possible loss of the AGOA trade deal, thus further reducing our ability to leverage our industrialisation and trade to achieve decent work and social justice. We have failed to take advantage of our natural assets, remaining ensnared by a colonial mindset of exporters of raw materials and consumers of imported finished products.
As solution providers, the ACDP posits that in order to grow our industrial base and trade routes, we need to tackle structural constraints to productivity growth, reduce institutional vulnerabilities, and target the root causes of low productivity. This requires strong policies to cut red tape, improve productivity and enhance our international competitiveness.
Finally, but not exhaustively, by expanding beneficiation across multiple sectors, as championed by the ACDP over the years, we could drive economic growth and employment, expand our industrial base and trade deals while leveraging our natural resources and the promising AfCFTA.
