Letter: Cyril's address cause for optimism - The Citizen

While one would be well advised against premature praise for the policy direction of the present administration, President Cyril Ramaphosa's address to parliament this month provided South Africa's long-suffering people with some grounds for cautious optimism.

Most importantly, he foregrounded the imperative of driving economic growth.

We at the Institute of Race Relations have argued that this has been the great failing of South Africa since the global financial crisis.

Growth itself may not solve all the country's problems, but it is a necessary condition for addressing them. Our proposals eye a rising growth rate, targeting 23% a year initially and lifting to 57% a year in the longer term, to be sustained over a protracted period. This holds out the prospect of expanded employment and rising revenues, without which South Africa's welfare system cannot be sustained.

Our Blueprint for Growth papers set out how more rapid growth can be achieved. International and structural factors have been a major hindrance to achieving this. Even more tragic have been the policy missteps that have played to an ideological gallery and cost us economic opportunities.

Foremost here over the past few years has been the assault on property rights through the expropriation without compensation drive. The president's address sketched a number of sensible proposals for advancing land and agrarian reform improving rural infrastructure and providing postsettlement support, for example, as well as a commitment to releasing state land.

He also remarked: "The provision of title deeds for land and subsidised housing provides people with assets they can use to improve their economic position." State policy has for years often been deeply sceptical of providing beneficiaries with actual ownership. This suggests a more sympathetic approach to property rights part of the solution, rather than the problem.

With this, perhaps we are witnessing the early stages of a more pragmatic land reform policy that can act as a catalyst for growth. It remains to be seen whether policy will change, along with the political environment.

Terence Corrigan

Institute of Race Relations