The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s mandate is to create a diverse and internationally competitive economy through industrialization which is characterised by inclusive growth and development as well as equitable employment for all South Africans.
This mandate now has to be executed with a budget that is 16% less than the amount of R11,08 billion that was originally allocated for the 2020/21 financial year.
The only way that the Department can overcome this challenge is to achieve more with less and not to repeat past mistakes.
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic could not have come at a worse time for South Africa.
When the pandemic broke out, the South African economy was already on the verge of ruin and the country’s status as investment destination had just been downgraded to junk status. All thanks to the ANC government’s poor management, state capture and corruption.
A firm decision was needed to strike a balance between the economy and protecting lives as well as allowing time to prepare for the peak of the pandemic.
Instead of declaring a state of emergency to prevent devastation while remaining accountable, the government decided to declare a state of disaster which denied South Africans their right to generate an income. The economy has been destroyed by clumsy and irrational regulations.
Hundreds of thousands of South Africans have already lost their jobs and thousands of once stable enterprises and employers have had to close their doors for good and not due to Covid-19, but due to the continued enforcement of irrational regulations.
In time it will become evident that the only thing that has been achieved by the strict ban on tobacco and alcohol products is the destruction of once proudly South African and internationally renowned brands that provided more than a million people with jobs in the value chain.
The ANC refuses to admit that it has made mistakes in how it handled the pandemic and instead it is trying to shift the blame to divert attention away from its failures.
Fostering a freeloader-culture will have the same detrimental effect as the culture of non-payment for services – also part of the ANC heritage.
President Ramaphosa addressed South Africans and told them that public funds will be protected by the already underfunded Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
The public funds that are being looted belong to South African tax payers. The looting is marginalising tax payers and fills them with distrust.
Minister Patel knows all too well that a command-and-control approach does not work, but that less regulation and more trust in the private sector do. Cabinet collegiality is not rational.
South African tax payers cannot keep funding irrationality.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Jaco Mulder on FF Plus
South Africa Today – South Africa News
