Summit blueprint to be signed
2003-06-07 09:57
Johannesburg - President Thabo Mbeki will be on hand at the Growth and Development Summit at Midrand north of Johannesburg on Saturday to witness the signing of a document many hope will be the blueprint for South Africa's economic and social recovery.
The content of the document follows a directive by the president that all major players from government, labour, business and civil society draw up strategies for revitalising the economy and creating jobs.
The president issued a further directive that all the strategies should be monitored and must be sustainable.
About top level 30 representatives from a number of organisations have been battling to reach consensus on the various issues for the past month. On Thursday - at the eleventh hour - they finally reached agreement. Their findings will be presented at Gallagher Estate where about 350 delegates will assemble to watch the presentation of the final document and the signing of the agreement.
Meanwhile, the South African Communist Party has vowed to picket outside the venue in protest at red-lining - the refusal of banks to grant home loans in what they consider high-risk areas - and in condemnation of the Banking Council of South Africa, which it accuses of attempting to delay the Community Reinvestment Bill.
The Federation of Unions of South Africa said the summit should highlight the need for industry to be more labour intensive - rather than using machines - when the end-product and inherent costs were similar. They said given Mbeki's pledge of R105-billion for the development of infrastructure, one million jobs could be created among the unskilled and semi-skilled, if the emphasis was on "labour-muscle" and not "machine muscle".
The National Land Committee which assists poor and landless people said it found it bizarre that it had been excluded from the summit on the grounds that it did not qualify as "civil society" in terms of the definition adopted by the organisers.
- SAPA