Ramaphosa Reveals Plan To Reignite Economy

President Cyril Ramaphosa has outlined plans to reignite the economy by creating jobs through infrastructure development.

Government has committed R100-billion over the next three years to realise the plan.

According to Statistics South Africa, about 2.2 million South Africans were left without work in the second quarter, with many companies forced to shut their doors as the economy was grounded to a halt due to the lockdown.

Ramaphosa said that there should be immediate benefits for job creation.

Ramaphosa’s plan is to raise growth to around three-percent on average over the next 10 years.

“More than 60-thousand jobs will be created for labour-intensive maintenance and construction of municipal infrastructure and rural roads,” Ramaphosa said.

“To support our healthcare system an additional 6,000 community health workers and nursing assistants will be deployed as we proceed with the implementation of National Health Insurance.”

Fifty strategic projects are to be fast-tracked enabling R340-billion in new investment but the plan will rely heavily on a secure energy supply, which Ramaphosa is promising within the next two years.

“In the immediate term, agreements will be finalised with Independent Power Producers to connect over 2000mw of additional capacity from existing projects by June 2021,” Ramaphosa said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa also said that the government will be extending the special R350 COVID-19 grant by a further three months.

Parliament is due to debate the plan as soon as next week.

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