The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) said in response to the State of the Province Address (SOPA) by the Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi, that the ANC-dominated Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) should take decisive steps to ensure an investor-friendly policy environment.
This is needed to combat the growing poverty among the people of the province.
The Premier paid a lot of attention to economic development, with a specific focus on attracting new investments.
Without new investments, the province will not get the economic injection it needs to ensure strong economic growth and sustainable job creation. The required economic growth rate is at least 6% and can only be achieved through massive investments.
The Freedom Front Plus has been imploring the provincial government to focus on attracting foreign investors to the province for years and now it appears that the ANC has finally started listening. It comes as no surprise, though, because the Freedom Front Plus recently engaged with the Premier to find ways in which to channel new investments, which will create sustainable job opportunities, to Gauteng.
The ANC, and particularly the Gauteng provincial ANC led by Lesufi, is in trouble among its voters. The ANC received only 34,76% of the votes in last year’s national and provincial elections, and dropped below 50% for the first time in history.
In addition, it appears that the ANC’s popularity keeps waning based on the negative response and reception by the public during the Legislature’s respective committees’ public meetings.
This is particularly evident at the Legislature’s Economic Development Committee’s public meetings where the people want to know how millions of rands are spent on the Economic Development Department’s projects while there seems to be no improvement at grass-roots level.
The Freedom Front Plus’s caucus leader in the Gauteng Legislature, Adv Anton Alberts, currently chairs the Economic Development Committee.
The impact of the ANC’s poor performance in the elections and communities’ anger are now compelling Lesufi to start listening to reason, and the Freedom Front Plus wants to make the most of this opportunity.
The Freedom Front Plus is already engaging with the GPU to attract potential investors to Gauteng. The party has also facilitated talks between prospective investors and the Premier. The Premier thanked the party for this in his SOPA.
The international community is currently quite hostile to the ANC, both on national and provincial level. So, the ANC on all levels has to create a drastically improved policy environment to reassure the international community, and especially America, concerning problematic policy, such as expropriation without compensation, black economic empowerment and affirmative action.
Moreover, the Freedom Front Plus will convey these prerequisites for meaningful investments in Gauteng to the Premier and his Cabinet who should, in turn, put pressure on the national government to make serious policy adjustments.
Without meaningful reforms, poverty among white, black, coloured and Indian communities will continue to grow.
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