South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday called for economic transformation, pledging to continue implementing Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and affirmative action programmes.
He spoke at a rally in Giyani, Limpopo Province, to mark the Freedom Day, which falls on April 27 in memory of the first all-race elections that toppled the apartheid government in 1994.
“For freedom to be complete, the economy of our country must not be skewed along racial lines.
“We must give practical meaning to the demand of the Freedom Charter that all shall share in the country’s wealth.
“To achieve this goal, the government has introduced new programmes such as the promotion of black participation in the manufacturing sector actively as industrialists,’’ Zuma said.
Report says these new programmes will reinforce the BEE and affirmative action programmes.
“In partnership with the private sector, government will continue to work towards economic transformation so that we can expand our economy and create much needed jobs.
“Let me also take this opportunity to welcome the continuing cooperation between government and the private sector,’’ Zuma said.
According to the president, consultations with business are ongoing to find ways of igniting economic growth and create jobs, to mitigate the punishing global economic climate.
“We will also continue to engage labour.
“Together we recently resolved a critical matter relating to workers’ pensions, which was of concern to the labour movement, especially COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions),’’ he said.
Speaking of the great achievements that have been made since 1994, Zuma reiterated that South Africa is a great success story.
He said that South Africa has its challenges, adding that the positive attributes of the country far outweigh those challenges.
“Let us point out the challenges so that we can be able to fix them. But in doing so, let us not lose sight of the achievements that we have all scored, working together under difficult conditions.
“Let us not allow those who have decided to ignore the achievements of our beautiful country to make us think we are a failure as a nation, a country and a people,’’ he said. (Xinhua/NAN)