[DEBATE] : SACP on 2006 State of the Nation Address by Pres Mbeki

[Dominic Tweedie]

Friday, 03 February 2006


SACP statement on President Mbeki’s 2006 “State of the Nation Address”


The SACP welcomes the broad strategic perspectives elaborated by President
Mbeki in his “State of the Nation Address” to Parliament today. These
strategic perspectives are underpinned by a commitment from government to
prioritise accelerated /shared/ growth.

The SACP understands this vision to mean a growth path that begins to be
qualitatively different from the existing growth trajectory. President Mbeki
has, quite correctly, noted that our nearly twelve “years of freedom have
been very good for business.” It is now time to ensure that socially and
economically the benefits of freedom are greatly expanded.

This year’s State of Nation address reflects and consolidates many important
areas in which there has been a welcome and growing economic policy
convergence among the ANC’s alliance partners. In particular, the commitment
to fostering an economically active, developmental state (in all three
spheres of government); the prioritisation of halving poverty and
unemployment by 2014; and the use of state owned enterprises as key
catalysers for infra-structural investment.

The SACP also notes with approval the acknowledgement that key areas (in
which we have been campaigning) are critical for the success of sustainable
and accelerated shared growth. We warmly welcome, for instance, the
President’s commitment, on behalf of government, to review the “willing
selling, will buyer” formula in regard to land reform; the speeding up of
land restitution; and the commitment to more effectively harmonising land
and agrarian reform with provincial and local government integrated
planning.

The SACP also welcomes the implicit impatience expressed by the President
with the financial sector for its dragging of heels in regard to releasing
R42 billion set aside for housing, as agreed upon at the Financial Sector
Summit. The importance of building cooperatives and of ensuring that small
and micro businesses have more access to capital are other key themes
emphasised by the address.

The past decade of sustained economic growth has, indeed, been very good for
business. The SACP believes that this growth will not be sustainable if it
is not a significantly more shared growth. Sharing must not be an
after-thought, a trickle down. It must be integrated into the growth path
itself – through skills training, through land reform that assures household
sustainability, through infrastructure that addresses not just big business
needs, but also the needs of micro-businesses, co-ops, and poor communities,
and through projects that are labour intensive. But this will not happen
spontaneously – an active, developmental state, and the ongoing mobilisation
and vigilance of communities, trade unions and progressive social forces is
essential.

The SACP pledges itself to be an active partner in the struggle for
accelerated, sustainable, shared growth.

As much as we welcome all these positive messages from the State of the
Nation Address, we however, remain convinced that one of the biggest
weaknesses in government’s economic initiatives is the absence of an
overarching industrial strategy.

Issued by: SACP

CONTACT: Kaizer Mohau, Media Liaison Officer, South African Communist Party
(SACP),
Tel: 011 339 3621/2, Fax: 011 339 4244/6880, Fax2email: 086 613 5646,
Mobile: 076 573 7764

Email: kaizer at sacp.org.za mailto:kaizer at sacp.org.za
<mailto:kaizer at sacp.org.za>
Web portal: www.sacp.org.za http://www.sacp.org.za/
<http://www.sacp.org.za/>



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