DÉJÀ VU? ANC’S LATEST PLAN FOR THE ECONOMY REPEATS OLD MISTAKES

Sat 11 October 2025:

The governing party’s new 10-point plan to fix the economy is dismissed by critics as more of the same.

This week, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared an “economic emergency”. His party’s response to rampant poverty, widespread unemployment, and miserably low growth? A 10-point plan that comes short of reforms needed to boost the economy.

The plan, presented at a special ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni, focuses on major network industries, state capacity, and job creation.

“We are treating this as an emergency because it is one. The Economic War Room will ensure that government departments are held accountable, that delivery is tracked, and that South Africans see the impact of our actions,” Ramaphosa said.

But analysts and political parties in his own Government of National Unity (GNU) have their doubts. They argue that without serious reforms, the latest programme will simply repeat past failures.

Central to the government’s strategy are interventions in Eskom’s transmission network and Transnet’s freight logistics. It also includes rebuilding the chrome and manganese industries and establishing an “Economic War Room” in the Presidency to monitor implementation.

Critics, like Dr John Endres of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), are wary of the president’s promises. He believes that even if the planned interventions are successful, they will not generate nearly enough of the growth that is needed.

“If they are successful, they could triple or even quadruple South Africa’s economic growth rate. Before we get too excited, the growth rate is currently around 0.5%, so it would put us at 1.5%-2%. That is certainly better than what we’ve got now, but it is nowhere near where growth needs to be,” Endres told me in an email.

It’s barely enough to make a dent on South Africa’s official unemployment rate of 33.2%. In fact, he believes, the growth rate should be between 4% to 6% if the millions without jobs are to find work.

__________________________________________________________________________

https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22

__________________________________________________________________________

A history of failed implementation

Scepticism around the new economic plan is neither new nor unfounded, given the government’s poor track record beneath the fresh coat of 10-point-plan paint.

“There is a risk that billions more will be spent on Eskom, Transnet and other state-owned enterprises, to little effect,” Endres warned. That has certainly been the experience of the [Jacob] Zuma and Ramaphosa years – billions in bailouts for the SOEs, yet still they remain shaky.

The Democratic Alliance (DA), meanwhile, believes any attempt at reform will be undermined by its governing partner’s unrelenting commitment to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). The party argues that race-based policies have deterred investment and stifled growth.

Endres was particularly critical of the idea of another presidential task team, suggesting the ANC values “social engineering and party loyalty above results.”

He argued that the new economic plan fails to address the core issues: “Real transformation can be achieved only one way, and that is through rapid, inclusive economic growth,” he said.

This would require guaranteeing property rights, cutting unnecessary regulation, and removing race-based laws — steps absent from ANC’s latest proposal.

The plan’s focus on public employment programmes was also described as a “fool’s errand” by Endres. He argued that creating jobs without commercial demand, funded by taxes on the productive sector, is a sign of failure.

The IRR insists that the government’s role is not to create jobs directly but to remove the noose off the neck of the economy. The current economic plan, with its emphasis on state intervention, is seen as the “same flawed approach that has failed us for more than a decade.”

To objectively measure success, the IRR will be watching three key indicators: fixed investment as a share of GDP rising towards 30%, GDP growth reaching 5% or higher, and unemployment dropping below 25%.