South African Government Policies since 1994
The following is a brief overview of the South African government Policies since 1994. These policies were primarily focused on economic development.
RDP – Reconstruction and Development Programme
- Achieving high and sustainable economic growth.
- Privatizing underutilized state assets.
- Liberalizing trade policy to boost exports.
- Increasing employment via economic growth.
- Reducing the budget deficit.
- Financing the RDP visa savings in other areas of government expenditure.
- Increasing capital expenditure by government.
- Forming a more effective civil service.
- Reconstructing the environment of disadvantaged South Africans via the provision of housing, water and electricity.
- De-racializing the economy via legislation and policy changes in areas such as affirmative action.
- Introducing competition policy to inhibit the over-concentration of economic power.
- Strengthening the bargaining position of labour.
GEAR – Growth, Employment and Redistribution framework
- Encourage greater public investment in infrastructure.
- Reduce the budget deficit.
- Use interest rates to control inflation.
- Relax exchange controls.
- Liberalise trade more rapidly.
- Introduce tax incentives to stimulate investment.
- Restrain growth of the public sector wage bill.
- Privatise state-owned assets.
- Increase labour flexibility.
AsgiSA – The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa
- Introduce greater labour market flexibility via a review of labour laws.
- Promote/encourage investment in infrastructure.
- Ensure a more competitive business environment especially for small and medium-sized enterprises.
- Achieve GDP growth of 4.5% by 2009 and 6% between 2010 and 2014.
- Improve the value of the rand.
- Review BEE policy.
- Ensure a supply of skilled labour.
NGP – The New Growth Path
- Enable the state to play a leading role in directing investment and providing investment incentives.
- Promote domestic investment.
- Increase employment via the private sector.
- Strengthen public sector investment in infrastructure.
- Target labour-absorbing industries for investment.
- Promote small-scale agriculture.
- Review BEE policy to focus on skills development and worker and community ownership.
- Increase labour market regulation to protect vulnerable workers.
- Resist the reduction of trade tariffs while promoting exports and combating illegal imports.
- Cap management salaries at R500,000 a year.
- Moderate pay increase for people earning between R3,000 and R20,000 a month.
NDP – The National Development Plan 2030
- Maintain fiscal discipline and macro-economic stability.
- Achieve sustained GDP growth of 5.4%.
- Reduce unemployment to 14% by 2010 and to 6% by 2030.
- Overhaul the civil service to improve efficient and implementation.
- Promote market competitiveness.
- Reduce the cost of living.
- Reduce impediments to investment.
- Create jobs via entrepreneurship and reduced regulation as well as a public works programme.
The summaries of these South African Government Policies are taken from the book A Time Traveller’s Guide to Our Next Ten Years by Frans Cronje, CEO of the South African Institute of Race Relations.