{"id":441174,"date":"2020-10-16T07:38:16","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T05:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=441174"},"modified":"2020-10-16T07:38:42","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T05:38:42","slug":"south-africas-economic-recovery-plan-in-a-nutshell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/441174\/south-africas-economic-recovery-plan-in-a-nutshell\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa\u2019s economic recovery plan in a nutshell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South African president Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday unveiled a plan aimed at helping the economy recover from the ravages of the coronavirus and a lockdown that was implemented to curb its spread.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe damage caused by the pandemic to an already weak economy, to employment, to livelihoods, to public finances and to state-owned companies has been colossal,\u201d Ramaphosa told lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to see this moment as a rupture with the past and an opportunity to drive fundamental and lasting change,\u201d placing the economy on \u201ca new path to growth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>These are the key points:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The government is targeting 3% average annual economic growth over the next decade.<\/li>\n<li>A presidential panel will be established to reduce the time it takes to make decisions on projects that could help grow the economy.<\/li>\n<li>A state infrastructure fund will provide R100 billion ($6 billion) in finance, a measure the government hopes will unlock a further trillion rand in investment.<\/li>\n<li>About 11,800 megawatts of new power generation capacity will be brought on line from 2022, more than half of which will come from renewable sources.<\/li>\n<li>Agreements will also be finalized with independent power producers to supply another 2,000 megawatts of capacity from existing projects by June 2021.<\/li>\n<li>About R13.8 billion will be spent on creating 800,000 jobs and economic opportunities by the end of March next year. A further R86.2 billion will be spent on employment creation over the next two years.<\/li>\n<li>The government will seek to promote industrialization by increasing local production and procurement.<\/li>\n<li>Data costs will be reduced and broadband expanded to poor households.<br \/>\nThe time it takes to secure mining and water licenses will be halved.<\/li>\n<li>A R350 welfare grant for those who don\u2019t qualify for other government support will be extended by three months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The government intends hiring 300,000 teacher assistants and allocating grants to about 75,000 small-scale farmers. More than 60,000 road-construction jobs will also be created and an additional 6,000 community health workers and nursing assistants will be hired.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Bloomberg-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-441180\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Bloomberg-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"921\" height=\"515\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Bloomberg-2.png 921w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Bloomberg-2-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Bloomberg-2-768x429.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 921px) 100vw, 921px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The details, which are still thin, will be laid out at the upcoming Medium Term Budget Statement. We expect a further deterioration in the budget as a result of this additional stimulus,&#8221; said economist, Boingotlo Gasealahwe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt appears to be more of a lofty wish list than a concrete policy plan,\u201d said Casey Delport, an investment analyst at Anchor Capital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<span id=\"76c4339c-0efe-11eb-a580-308d99724420\">Whilst<\/span> the significant boost in infrastructure development and increased focus on employment creation is greatly needed, very little detail was provided as to how government plans to finance the ambitious goals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The president didn\u2019t specify whether budget-deficit targets will be revised, with finance minister Tito Mboweni expected to release details in his medium-term budget on 28 October.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/441017\/we-dont-need-another-plan-from-ramaphosa-this-is-what-we-should-focus-on-instead-dawie-roodt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">We don\u2019t need another plan from Ramaphosa \u2013 this is what we should focus on instead: Dawie Roodt<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South African president Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday unveiled a plan aimed at helping the economy recover from the ravages of the coronavirus and a lockdown that was implemented to curb its spread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":441182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-441174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441174"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441188,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441174\/revisions\/441188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}