MEC Alan Winde on national cabinet reshuffle

Five points for members of the new cabinet to get our economy back on track

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s new cabinet will have their work cut out for them as they set about making the president’s commitment to the National Development Plan in South Africa a reality.

Finance:

Minister Nhlanhla Nene is no stranger to the demanding job requirements of the National Treasury, but he inherits a low-growth economy that is unable to keep pace with the job creation requirements of the country.

MEC of Economic Opportunities, Alan Winde, said We congratulate minister Nene on his return to the Treasury. Minister Nene is seen to be credible by the markets and we hope that he will be able to guide the country out of the economic doldrums it currently finds itself in.

South Africa has seen business confidence slip to all-time lows in recent months. Minister Nhlanhla Nene must focus on securing as much foreign direct investment into the South African economy as possible to ensure growth and create jobs. To do this, he will need to build business confidence with a message of policy certainty, cutting red tape and increasing the ease of doing business in the country.

Wesgro CEO, Tim Harris, said A key focus of Minister Nene must be to help attract high levels of foreign direct investment into South Africa. If this happens, we will grow our tax revenue, employ more people, and facilitate economic growth. But this will require cutting the red tape that stands in the way of business, and shifting the international narrative about our economy, including tackling head-on concerns over policy uncertainty, corruption, and the various constraints identified by the ratings agencies.

Tourism:

We welcome Minister Derek Hanekom back to the tourism portfolio. As President Ramaphosa said in his SONA speech, tourism employs 700 000 people in this country. By focusing on growing this sector, Minister Hanekom and his department have the opportunity to seed the emergence of entrepreneurs across the hospitality value chain. We’d like to see the Minister working closely with Home Affairs to enable visitors to gain easy access to our destination, with technology playing a key role, said Winde.

Home Affairs:

Minister Malusi Gigaba’s visa debacle during his last turn at Home Affairs created serious problems for the country’s tourism industry. For this reason he became known as the ‘tourism terminator’. Minister Gigaba has been tasked with assisting President Ramaphosa to achieve the vision he detailed in his SONA address, of doubling the size of the tourism industry and creating more jobs across all sectors. This can only be done by ensuring that the red tape around the issuing of visas to tourists, and work permits to foreign investors, is urgently addressed, Minister Winde said.

Water Affairs and Sanitation:

We hope that in this department, Minister Gugile Nkwinti is the new broom who sweeps clean. The Department of Water and Sanitation plays a key role in agriculture which is a vital sector of the Western Cape economy. We call on him to focus on the Clanwilliam Dam and Brandvlei Dam canal extension infrastructure projects. Long delays are impacting farmers, agriworkers and the economy, and will continue to impact water security and land reform projects in these areas.

We also call on the minister to pay attention to the maintenance of existing water infrastructure, particularly the current canal systems which transfer water to farms from our major dams. The ageing Clanwilliam Dam canals have suffered major leakages in the past few years, resulting in the Western Cape Government stepping in to fix them despite it not being our mandate. By ensuring that water is able to reach farms, Minister Nkwinti’s department will be protecting jobs on established farms, and creating an environment conducive to new farming operations.

Rural Development and Land Reform

Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane will have her work cut out for her as she sets about implementing the land reform policies in her portfolio. Land reform is key to transforming the agricultural sector. The first step for the new minister will be to urgently formalise the hand over of land to beneficiaries who’ve been waiting years for certainty in this regard, and to unlock and release further parcels of land that are already available. Government should be looking at its own property portfolio first, to see what kind of opportunities it is sitting on.

Source: Government of South Africa

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