The South Africa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) has criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa’s economic recovery plan saying it does not understand why the government is seeking solutions to problems that it does not fully understand.
Ramaphosa announced a raft of policy reform plans on Friday, which include re-prioritising R45 billion of public spending to boost economic growth and create jobs.
One of its main features is a more than R400 billion for infrastructure development to be financed by a private-public partnership.
The chamber’s CEO Alan Mokoki says the government is contradicting itself by spending money on infrastructure development when construction companies are struggling to survive.
“Construction companies are going out of business. We can’t continue to throw money into a gaping hole. We need to stand back and say before we spend money, the analysis should tell us what the root cause of why things do not get done the way they should for us to achieve the outcomes that we desire. Until you do that, you are actually finding solutions for problems that you don’t even understand. You need to understand the problem first.”
