IRR launches pro-growth roadmap: #WhatSACanBe: 100 days to unleash economic growth & get SA back on track

South Africa’s Government of National Unity (GNU) must use its political capital to start introducing changes that make a real difference in South Africans’ lives, says the Institute of Race Relations (IRR).

As a contribution to how the GNU might go about doing this, the IRR has launched the first in a series of nine weekly papers on the #WhatSACanBe theme, covering everything from public administration and labour to investment and education.

These papers can act as a framework and a plan for governments across the country, as well as a guide for South Africans looking for ways to improve their quality of life.

The IRR points out that the first 100 days in government is the standard measure of the effectiveness of any new administration. For South Africa, that is no different.

The new administration is firmly in the honeymoon phase, where small actions and changes are garnering an overwhelmingly positive reaction. The next three months will determine the future successes, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the stability of the GNU. It must harness the successes, and use its political capital to effect change for all South Africans.

The first in the series – Public Administration: Reward Skills, Deliver for Citizens − covers the most important function of government: service delivery. Whether applying for an ID, collecting a driver’s licence, querying a bill or trying to get a response from Eskom, ordinary South Africans are daily affected by the quality of service delivery.

The IRR’s report recommends eliminating cadre deployment, establishing more public-private partnerships, and enforcing transparency and discipline in the public service as the three core reforms that government can undertake to achieve success.

Over the past decade IRR polling has shown that “bread-and-butter" issues – unemployment, poverty, and health care – are what South Africans care about the most, and this series of papers helps show how South Africa can address them.

These papers, along with the IRR’s Growth Strategy series – which shows how South Africa could reach an annual economic growth rate of 7% – supply a solid foundation for putting the country on the path of rapid and sustainable inclusive economic development to everyone’s benefit.

The #WhatSACanBe series presents an opportunity for a whole-of-society approach in overcoming pro-poverty forces.

The first paper in the series can be read here.

Media contacts: Chris Patterson, Researcher Tel: 063 682 5035 Email: chrisp@irr.org.za

Hermann Pretorius IRR Head of Strategic Communications Tel: 079 875 4290 Email: hermann@irr.org.za

Media enquiries: Michael Morris Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za