- President Cyril Ramaphosa has said South Africa's "long and difficult" path to economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic must start immediately.
- Institutions have a strong appetite to invest in South Africa's infrastructure and the country should leverage this, he added.
- The president said the country nonetheless faced a crisis of "massive proportions".
President Cyril Ramaphosa has said as government continues to respond to the coronavirus pandemic's impact, South Africa's "long and difficult" path to economic recovery needs to start immediately.
In his weekly newsletter released on Monday morning, Ramaphosa said South Africa had all the ingredients for an economic recovery and that now was the time to "work together to make it happen".
He said institutions showed a strong appetite to make the necessary investments to meet South Africa's extensive and diverse infrastructure needs and the country should be more deliberate about leveraging this for economic recovery.
"Since the onset of the pandemic in South Africa, our strategy has been to provide whatever support we can, within our constrained resources, to protect businesses and preserve jobs.
"Now we must move quickly towards a robust programme of reconstruction and recovery – and we must do so together," said Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa said South Africa would have to put in place a "clear, focused and ambitious set of measures to not only restore our economy" and set it on a new path of inclusive growth.
"We are faced with a health, social and economic crisis of massive proportions. But we are not daunted, nor discouraged. We will do what we must to build an economy that is resilient and dynamic, that creates work and opportunity, and that meets the needs of all our people," Ramaphosa added.
