By Industrialisation is thee way to go in building a country’s economy. The ANC says it will prioritise the building of industries with the aim of archiving an inclusive economy and create the much need jobs.
Most industries are labour intensive, like mining and manufacturing. During the manifesto launch on Saturday, 24 February at the Moses Mabida Stadium, in Durban, the President of the liberation party Cyril Ramaphosa said the ANC has come up with strategies to revitalise and diversify the manufacturing sector; foster a more inclusive and robust national and African market.
In order to effectively compete in global markets, Ramaphosa said people will be skilled and reskilled.
“We will focus on industrialisation and reindustrialisation. We are the most industrialised country on the African continent; we’ve got a very good foundation, we just need to ensure that this important pillar is strengthened and we will therefore support localisation, and labor intensive industries,” said Ramaphosa.
The ANC President, addressing the multitudes of ANC members and the alliance who attended the launch; said the ANC led government will create new industries as the country has potential in the hydrogen sector, technology driven sectors that will employ young people. To further transform the economy, Ramaphosa said the party will expand the black industrialist program to reach more than 2000 beneficiaries.
“We have already hit the 1000 black industrialist target; we have taken deliberate action to make sure that we create black industrialists who are building factories, who are building engineering factories; who are making things for exports, who are already scouring the whole world exporting products that they make.
This is a new development in our country, as black people; we were relegated to the back, apartheid used to prevent black people by law, convention, by regulation, from being manufacturers; from being creators. Today, this ANC government has done so but in the next five years we plan to do even more and create a thousand more black industrialists,” said Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa said no society can prosper without investing in the capacity of its citizens, for a country to prosper, according to the President; it must have an industrial policy that will focus on certain industries and incentivize the key players in those industries.
Cyril Ramaphosa says the ANC led government has ambitions to expand its global market by increasing exports both internationally and in Africa. He said South Africa will use the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) to export goods to other African economies.
“Africa is now open for us. We have opened a market of 1.3 billion consumers on the African continent and our companies are now going through the continent, our companies are selling goods and services in many African countries. Prior to 1994; South Africa could not do that because it was a hated country, today our country is loved, doors of trade are open to many countries, not only on our continent, but in the world,” said Ramaphosa.
South Africa is currently exporting tons of oranges to the Europe and meat to China and the Middle East, cattle and sheep are being exported throughout the globe. He said this kind of achievement can only be credited to the ANC led government which will increase the trade in the next five years.
