PRETORIA, Dec 15 (NNN-SANEWS) — President Cyril Ramaphosa has held a meeting with the Black Business Council (BBC) to discuss challenges facing the South African economy and the transformation of the economy.
Also at the meeting were Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza; Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel; Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi; Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana; Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga and Minister in the Presidency for Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and Deputy Minister of Finance David Masondo.
Topics under discussion included issues hindering black business participation in contributing to development and economic growth, energy security, transport, agriculture, the capacity of the state, employment equity and transformation.
“Since the advent of democracy nearly 30 years ago, we have worked to advance the economic position of black and women South Africans. That is why we introduced broad-based black economic empowerment, affirmative action, preferential procurement and other transformation policies to address the imbalances created by years of apartheid rule.
“Our fiscal policies enabled a massive redistribution of resources towards mainly black South Africans through the provision of basic services, subsidised housing, improved education and health care, and social grants,” President Ramaphosa said.
BBC President Elias Monage said: “The BBC notes progress being made in processing the Public Procurement Bill. We view this bill as a very important instrument and the BBC is happy that the bill, in its current form, after many fights, contains the set-asides in the primary legislation”.
According to the Presidency, the meeting agreed to establish five focused work streams which will be coordinated from the Presidency with the first quarterly report back expected to take place in March 2024.
The work streams are: Inclusive economic transformation; Funding of black small businesses; Energy (to be considered as part of NECOM work streams); Transport and logistics (to be considered as part of NLCC work streams); and Capacity of the State.
“President Ramaphosa reaffirmed the government’s commitment in addressing the energy crisis, logistics backlogs and crime and corruption by highlighting key interventions through the Energy Action Plan, National Logistics Crisis Committee and the recently adopted Freight Logistics Road map, and positive steps taken to appoint a new board of Transnet and the Eskom Group Chief Executive Officer,” the Presidency said. — NNN-SANEWS
