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President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ban on government cadres and employees from doing business with the state meets resistance.
President Cyril Ramaphosa he faced a rejection of his disputed ban on officials and cadres from doing business with the state. In the August special of the party ANC NEC anti-corruption meetingHe said the party should step aside and allow non-aligned companies to benefit from government contracts with the private sector, but the reformist wing of the party was criticized at this weekend’s NEC meeting.
The government spends an average of R500 billion a year (more in the 2020 Covid-19 economy) and the tenders governing this spending have created an economy around it.
Outlining an eight part reconstruction and economic recovery planRamaphosa said the ban on public officials doing business with the state would be enforced, but also said the party would consult on what the policy should be for. politically exposed people (FIFO) who were no longer in office. He said their “human rights” (being in business) were a consideration and that the consultation should define “the most appropriate means for politically exposed people to engage in business with the state.”
The term “FIFO” comes from financial intelligence legislation that reveals the accounts of politically exposed and influential people because their access to public funding sources is a risk of corruption. The Public Service Commission has failed for more than a decade to secure the implementation of laws that prohibit officials from doing business with the state, and the Auditor General has found that at all three levels of government, the practice is common.
“The ANC is committed to an approach that balances the need to detect the movement of bribes, the use of financial systems to launder illicit money flows, and the need for human rights to enable honest living (including engaging in business) , where a citizen is no longer entrusted with a prominent public function … more consultations will be held … among alliance partners and in legislatures across the political spectrum to find the most appropriate approach to the issue of other people politically exposed that do business with the state, ”the party’s statement said.
At the weekend’s NEC meeting, Ramaphosa received the go-ahead for an eight-part recovery plan being signed in Nedlac that focuses on energy and food security, agricultural production and the empowerment of black farmers. , infrastructure, tourism, the green economy (mainly renewables and recyclables), urgent spectrum auction and a public employment program (the government’s public works program already provides 500,000 jobs and will now be expanded).
The ANC also said that “macroeconomic interventions should be the basis of (all) interventions” and that “it will be an imperative for sustained reconstruction and recovery that SA controls its national debt and stabilizes public finances.”
Ramaphosa called the package a “radical economic transformation” (RET) program, but the terminology appears to be a hoax on the faction led by the party’s general secretary, Ace Magashule. The term generally refers to party resolutions to nationalize the South African Reserve Bank (to buy minority shareholders) and to a prescribed asset legislation program where the government can, through legislation, instruct funds from pensions on asset allocation.
None of these elements were highlighted in Ramaphosa’s statement, which said: “We will promote RET technology to enable black-led businesses and women-led businesses to be key players” with a special focus on youth-led businesses. Ramaphosa committed to “pro-growth reforms” in the energy, telecommunications, mining, agriculture and tourism sectors.
Business for South Africa has taken off its gloves and gotten much more vocal about stalled reforms and this promise is a market signal for reform. This is the mantra that Ramaphosa finished his report on: “Implementation, implementation, implementation, that will now be the order of things,” he said.
He said that the recovery and reconstruction plan would revolve around the principles of black empowerment (especially in agriculture and spectrum auctioning), as well as “gender mainstreaming” to incorporate more women owners of companies to the mainstream. DM
