Economist Duma Gqubule says that it is problematic that the African National Congress (ANC) does not discuss macro-economic policy.
He was responding to the outcomes of the party’s sixth policy conference that wrapped up at Nasrec, south of Johannesburg, on Sunday.
Gqubule says there is an argument to be made for the Reserve Bank to have a triple mandate targetting economic growth, employment, as well as inflation.
He says, “The problem with all ANC conferences is that they don’t discuss macroeconomic policy, and there is no internal democracy that requires this discussion. Unemployment, poverty and inequality are macroeconomic policy issues. In 2012, the National Development Plan, set a target of 5.4% GDP growth, and 11 million jobs to be created by 2013, but the Treasury focuses on debt, the Reserve Bank focuses on inflation, it is nobody’s responsibility to meet those targets.”
Economic growth
The South African Communist Party has reiterated its stance that the Reserve Bank’s mandate be changed to fostering economic growth.
The party’s General Secretary Solly Mapaila says banks loot money from people and want government to forge ahead with its plans to establish a governed bank.
“The banks are much less about them than about ourselves and we have called for the establishment of a public banking system. You can have Gauteng for instance having its own national bank. Municipalities and metros having their own bank. Because in the context of a country focusing on feared money, in other words paper money, money that is not paired to any critical minerals, the gold or platinum that we have. The banking system is organised capital looting worldwide.”
VIDEO: Discussions on economic policy:
