Honourable House Chairperson,
The ACDP notes the R9.6 billion reduced budget of the Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition (DTIC), whose mandate it is to facilitate the creation of a conducive environment for companies and people to grow through increased industrialisation for the creation of jobs. Factually, our high unemployment rate of 32.9% is indicative of this Department’s failure to create an environment conducive for economic growth.
With a reduced budget leading to austerity measures, the ACDP as we supported the Master Plans, welcomes the initiative by DTIC to evaluate the strategic needs of its entities, examining their performance and resource allocation to ensure that the entities are fit for purpose, and to rationalise resources and structures to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness, as appropriate.
Former United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, said, “Good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development.” The corollary to this statement is true in that in the absence of good governance, poverty will not be eliminated and socio-economic development will be absent.
From the ACDP’s perspective, if we are to see inclusive growth and sustainable development, then South Africa must come first, above political ideology, race-based and cadre deployment policies. Those who profess to be protagonists of a Constitutional Democracy must not pay lip service to declaration of chapter 2(22) of our Constitution which states that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.” The worker empowerment objective must be to provide equity for workers irrespective of their race. One only has to look at the deterioration of our SOEs, to realise that merit, not race-based policies, is what is needed to grow our industrial base, not a replica of apartheid job segregation laws.
On behalf of the ACDP, I have over the last 5 years championed the implementation of beneficiation and welcome its inclusion in the report. Beneficiation transforms a mineral or group of minerals into a higher-value product for local consumption and/or exportation. South Africa has a rich mineral resource base of some US$2.5 trillion or R45 trillion, but government departments have failed to implement the necessary structural reform, thereby perpetuating the legacy of our colonial past by continuing to be exporters of our raw materials and importers of valued-added products.
This budget must do more to advance beneficiation.
The ACDP has an unselfish love for, and commitment to, the people of South Africa. We will strive to use our skills, talents and resources to enhance South Africa’s competitive and comparative advantages and leverage on our economies of scale to grow our industrial base and reduce unemployment.
