The National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) has agreed to an action plan for South Africa’s economic recovery, the presidency said in a statement on Tuesday evening (15 September).<\/p>\n
The plan will is directed towards building confidence and placing South Africa on a path of investment and growth.<\/p>\n
“Social partners have identified priority areas for rebuilding the economy as well as structural reforms and other programmes which will enable sustainable and inclusive growth with an intensive focus on job creation,” the presidency said.<\/p>\n
While the final details of the plan will only be announced once it is finalised by cabinet, the presidency said that a core focus will be on addressing Eskom’s structural and funding problems.<\/p>\n
“Social partners have also agreed on a social compact which commits government, business, labour and community to mobilising funding to address Eskom\u2019s financial crisis in a sustainable manner – in return for an efficient, productive and fit-for-purpose Eskom that generates electricity at affordable prices for communities and industries,” it said.<\/p>\n
A copy of the agreement, which has been seen by Bloomberg<\/a><\/strong>, calls for Eskom’s R488 billion of debt to be reduced and for adequate resources to be \u201cmobilised\u201d to ensure it becomes financially sustainable \u2013 but is scant on detail on how this will be done.<\/p>\n The plan makes no mention of a previous proposal for the Public Investment Corp, which manages the pensions of state workers and has assets of R2.1 trillion, to take over part of Eskom\u2019s debt. Institutions that make funds available must do so within the mandates and risk-mitigation processes can\u2019t be compromised, it says.<\/p>\n Other key points of the agreement include:<\/p>\n The president welcomed the social partners\u2019 plan for economic recovery as a demonstration of collaboration that had produced \u201ca significant milestone in the history of our democracy and the advent of a new era of confidence” .<\/p>\n “This is a great achievement that rises to the challenge of the moment,” he said.<\/p>\n Infrastructure development\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n BusinessDay<\/a> <\/strong>reports that another key pillar of the plan will be infrastructure, with a massive development drive seen as key to driving recovery post-lockdown and creating jobs.<\/p>\n This comes after the presidency published a list of projects of ‘priority infrastructure projects’, which is expected to pave the way for the beginning of private investment in a R2.3 trillion program over the next decade.<\/p>\n\n
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