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If we don't put our economy near the top of our agenda, and face our economic crisis with the same energy we are fighting this health crisis, we will emerge from #COVID19 having dodged a bullet, only to face the firing squad.
#Day13OfLockdown https://www.news24.com/Columnists/Herman_Mashaba/herman-mashaba-silence-in-the-face-of-our-looming-economic-disaster-20200407
#Day13OfLockdown https://www.news24.com/Columnists/Herman_Mashaba/herman-mashaba-silence-in-the-face-of-our-looming-economic-disaster-20200407
Our economy is in deep trouble.
To emerge from this crisis, we have to take the most immediate action to protect our economy, our businesses and those who face unemployment.
BUT it can only be done if we take immediate and decisive action!
To emerge from this crisis, we have to take the most immediate action to protect our economy, our businesses and those who face unemployment.
BUT it can only be done if we take immediate and decisive action!
1. We need to Empowering municipalities to absorb the functions of provinces.
Provinces suck up billions of rands, create bloated administrations, and are only really responsible for education & healthcare.
Give municipalities more power, and save the money!
Provinces suck up billions of rands, create bloated administrations, and are only really responsible for education & healthcare.
Give municipalities more power, and save the money!
2. It is absurd that we have a Cabinet of 64, each of them entitled to VIP protection, housing, business class travel for themselves and loved ones, luxury vehicles, staff offices and the list goes on.
Get rid of the dead weight!
Get rid of the dead weight!
3. Urgently cut our public sector wage bill!
Our public sector wage bill stood at
R518,000,000,000 in 2018/19,
employing over 1.2 million people and constituting 35% of our national spend.
Our public sector wage bill stood at
R518,000,000,000 in 2018/19,
employing over 1.2 million people and constituting 35% of our national spend.
4. Our failing SOEs need to be sold off or privatised, as soon as possible.
Whether you believe in the value of a state-owned airline or not - and I don't - you CANNOT doubt it is now unaffordable after nine years of bailouts amounting to more than R20 billion.
Get rid of it!
Whether you believe in the value of a state-owned airline or not - and I don't - you CANNOT doubt it is now unaffordable after nine years of bailouts amounting to more than R20 billion.
Get rid of it!
5. We need a massive infrastructure programme that puts South Africans to work.
Relax labour laws to make it easier for businesses, big or small, to hire more South Africans and let's prevent the jobs blood bath that is going to follow this lockdown.
Relax labour laws to make it easier for businesses, big or small, to hire more South Africans and let's prevent the jobs blood bath that is going to follow this lockdown.
6. We need to investment massively in our education system and end the mafia-style powers of the SA Democratic Teachers Union!
Let's see vocational training facilities, teachers & nursing colleges, new universities & small business centres sprouting up around our country
Let's see vocational training facilities, teachers & nursing colleges, new universities & small business centres sprouting up around our country
South Africans, just as we have never faced a crisis of this magnitude before, we have never had the opportunity we have now to change the way we approach our economy, and the role of our government within it.
There is opportunity in crisis. Let's take decisive action!
There is opportunity in crisis. Let's take decisive action!
