SACP: Growth not everything
2013-02-15 18:05
Cape Town - Chasing economic growth to tackle poverty,
inequality and unemployment will not solve the country's problems, the SA Communist
Party said on Friday.
The SACP was responding to President Jacob Zuma's State of
the Nation address which focused in part on the National Development Plan. This
seeks to grow the economy threefold to create much-needed jobs in South Africa.
"The SACP wishes to caution that the challenges we
are experiencing should never push us to a point of nostalgia on the economic
policy front," spokesperson Malesela Maleka said in a statement.
Government should not cave in to demands by big business.
"The SACP will strongly resist all attempts by
business to try and blackmail us into succumbing to their narrow concerns about
profits without telling us about their own contributions," said Maleka.
He was referring to Zuma's pronouncements that big
business had asked for "certain obstacles" to be removed to achieve
the intended growth rates.
"The myth that there are legislative and other
bottlenecks to be unlocked in favour of business must be carefully examined. It
seems to us that all business wants are concessions without any commitments on
its part to realise our goals of tackling unemployment, poverty and
inequality," Maleka said.
The tripartite alliance partner welcomed the tax review
to be done by Treasury later this year, which would include looking at mining
royalty tax. It should ensure ordinary South Africans share in the country's
mineral wealth.
"The SACP calls for the process to be inclusive and
communities in the mining areas must be accorded an opportunity to explain the
exploitative practices of the mining houses."
Maleka cautioned against a "technical tax review
process", which he said would not address the "social ills created by
the mining houses".
On Zuma's report card on progress made in the
infrastructure roll-out plan, Maleka said there were positive trends emerging.
"Specifically, we appreciate the intensification at
the level of school infrastructure and the work that will commence in September
on the two sites of the new universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern
Cape."
The party welcomed the launch of the National Health
Insurance fund later in the year, but again cautioned against private sector
interests.
"The SACP will watch this development with keen
interest in order to ascertain that the fund is kept free of private sector
interest, including the tendency to flirt with a PPPs [public private
partnerships] model, which we regard as problematic."
- SAPA
