President Cyril Ramaphosa said that by setting up the government of National Unity (GNU), the country would become a “cooperation nation.”
Thursday night, cabinet ministers and members of parliament (MPs) flocked to Cape Town City Hall for the start of parliament. There, Ramaphosa laid out the plans for South Africa under its new government.
In his inaugural address for the seventh office, the president asked all South Africans to act like weaver birds, which work together to build complex structures.
Despite all the problems, disagreements, and obstacles, he said, “As South Africans, we must remain resolute in our pursuit of the path of cooperation, growth, and inclusion.”
The president said this as the government began the five-year voting cycle with an 11-party GNU, a first.
Three important strategy goals
Ramaphosa said South Africans are still poor and jobless and live in a society with a lot of inequality. The GNU has decided to focus on three strategic objectives over the next five years.
These are:
* driving growth that benefits everyone and job creation,
* cutting down on poverty and the high cost of life and
* creating a state that is strong, moral, and growing.
Economic growth for everyone
The president said that economic growth that benefits everyone will be at the center of the work at the top of the national agenda.
“We are set on growth that benefits everyone.” It has to change things. “Equal growth must lead to sharing wealth and chances,” Ramaphosa said.
“It must support the rise to power of black South Africans, women, and everyone else who used to be on the edges of the economy.” You have to fix the imbalances from the past and speed up the growth process; this is part of the Constitution.
The president promised to help troubled cities and towns by encouraging businesses to grow and add more jobs to attract investors.
“Make South Africa a building site.”
The president said that the GNU will invest heavily in roads, water, energy, human settlements, and transportation facilities over the next five years.
The president said that the goal is to make Infrastructure South Africa the main organization for planning and coordination by investing heavily in infrastructure.
“We have a clear intention to turn our country into a construction site as roads, bridges, houses, schools, hospitals, clinics, broadband fiber is laid, and new power lines are installed,” Ramaphosa said. “This will happen from our biggest cities to our deepest rural areas.”
Meanwhile, the president said that the government would boost growth in industries that need a lot of workers, like agriculture, tourism, green manufacturing, and services. This would lead to more jobs for South Africans.
Getting rid of poverty and the high cost of living
The president said the government will try to increase the number of essential foods that are not subject to VAT. They will also look at all of the prices that are set, including the formula for the price of fuel, to see where costs can be lowered.
Having jobs is the best way to help poor people. “We have, however, taken action to help the unemployed in several ways, such as when we introduced the SRD Grant during Covid,” Ramaphosa said.
He also said that this grant would be a starting point for creating a long-term way to help jobless people make money.
A sound education system helps lower poverty. That’s why the government has promised to ensure schools are good places to learn, with enough classrooms, safe and suitable bathrooms, clean water, and daily meals for those needing them.
NHI
The president talked about the much-maligned National Health Insurance (NHI) as a way to lower the high cost of living by ensuring everyone has equal access to fair, easy, and affordable decent healthcare.
Ramaphosa said, “As we run the National Health Insurance, we will focus on strengthening the healthcare infrastructure, improving the training of healthcare workers, and using technology to improve healthcare management.”
He also said that the NHI is being criticized a lot, but the government is sure it will unite people, settle disagreements, and clear up any confusion.
Creating a state that is strong, moral, and growing
Ramaphosa said that the government will continue fighting corruption and preventing too much political meddling by ensuring that there are strong, smart, and independent law enforcement agencies that can fight organized crime and complex crimes.
“We will use modern technology to help fight crime.“ “A data-driven approach will be used to find places where violent crime is common and to decide how to use police resources and crime-prevention measures best,” he said.
He also said that the government would keep using specialized police groups to fight crimes like illegal mining, gang violence, cash-in-transit heists, and the construction mafia.
