President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa needs a fundamental change to revive economic growth and tackle endemic poverty, inequality and unemployment that have been worsened by chronic power cuts and COVID-19.
Addressing the many troubles that have plagued Africa’s most industrialised nation in the past decade in his State of the Nation Address, Ramaphosa singled out the country’s unreliable power supply as one of the most egregious threats to long-term prosperity.
He said there was a need to address the immediate crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also to create conditions for long-lasting development.
The president added that his other aims for 2022 included overcoming COVID-19, infrastructure rollout, increasing local production and creating jobs.
“The present situation that we are in now of deep poverty, unemployment and inequality is unacceptable,” Ramaphosa said, promising to prioritise improving South Africa’s generating capacity.
“Fundamental reforms are needed to revive economic growth in our country.”
South Africa will commence the public auction of high frequency digital spectrum within one month, aimed at expanding access to fast Internet services that remain costly to the majority of the population, the president said.
One promising sector he highlighted was cannabis, adding that the government wants to grow its nascent domestic cannabis industry as it looks to tap global demand and grow local production and exports, which he said had the potential to create 130 000 jobs.
“We are streamlining the regulatory process so that hemp and cannabis can thrive as it does in other countries,” he said. – Reuters