( 3 minutes read)
· South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) and business leaders are heading for a showdown. Both the groups have differing perceptions on how to revive the economy ravaged by the coronavirus and a two-month lockdown.
· Business for South Africa (BUSA) is an umbrella body of business groups and is known for creating ideas for growth of the private sector in the country. It has warned that close to four million jobs may be at risk because of the pandemic.
· The strength of the workers in the country is 16.4 million people.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) and business leaders are heading for a showdown. Both the groups have differing
perceptions on how to revive the economy ravaged by the coronavirus and a two-month lockdown.
The ANC’s considered view is to encourage the use of pension funds and the central bank to finance infrastructure spending to drive economic growth. The party sources are more keen about creating more employment to absorb millions of people who have lost or are going to lose their livelihood, The business lobby group- Business Unity South Africa-dubs this as a continuation of old business model, which may not have any contextual relevance. They feel that the underlying dogma of the party sponsored development agenda is to give more importance to the government and state intervention as a pathway for development in the post-Covid-19 days. They feel that the private sector is best placed to lead the economy in the present times, telling that the present crisis of the once well grooved South African economy was the dominance of the state sector eclipsing the private sector to a secondary player.
The business lobby lists out how they had supplemented the government efforts during the Covid-19 days by raising money to support small enterprises and buy protective equipment and ventilators. Business for South Africa (BUSA) is an umbrella body of business groups and is known for creating ideas for growth of the private sector in the country. It has warned that close to four million jobs may be at risk because of the pandemic. The strength of the workers in the country is 16.4 million people. According to the apex organization of businesses close to 25% of the workers will be left in the lurch due to the pandemic.
