Towards an infrastructure investment social accord

In the last session of the second annual Economic Development Programme conference hosted by the Economic Development Department, a series of remarkable commitments emerged from business and labour leaders, on government’s Infrastructure Investment Plan.
The session chair and convener of the Economic Development Conference, Minister Ebrahim Patel posed a series of questions to the panelists focused around commitment to the plan and the commitments sectors were willing to make . The panel consisted of:

•  Bobby Godsell, President, Business Leadership South Africa
• Zwelinvima Vavi, General Secretary, Congress of South African Trade Unions,
• Ndaba Ntsele, President, Black Business Council

Bobby Godsell representing Business Leadership South Africa argued that the long term nature of the infrastructure investment framework provided the space for business to think about the next twenty years as opposed to the next quarter. In turn, he argued that the private sector should “seek a realistic and sensible” rate of return. The rate of return he ventured would be a real return, but would be in single digits.

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As the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) starts its 24^th National Congress, the focus will be on the elections, especially since everyone in South Africa has a view on Julius  Malema. The policy debates will be reduced to the background, but potentially have a bigger impact on public policy in South Africa, than the outcome of elections. This article summarises the discussion document titled A clarion call to economic freedom fighters: Programme of action for economic freedom in our lifetime.This article seeks to understand the argument, an important first step to debating the issues at a later stage. The proposals focused on youth are contained in a separate document.The discussion document can be downloaded at the ANCYL website.

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