Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members, South Africans are crying out for more jobs. Year after year, election after election and plan after plan, government promises more jobs. When I go out to my constituency in Durban, people confront me around every corner with the same demands. They ask, "when will our lives change?" "When will there be more jobs?"
I have listened to stories of young people sitting around unemployed. I have listened to stories about young people who are losing all sense of dignity and respect. I have listened to young people who have been driven to criminality out of sheer desperation. Even though we live in a country where we have a shortage of skills, I have heard terrible stories of qualified people unable to find jobs for months on end.
Parents often spend their life savings on their children's education in the hope that it will secure their children job opportunities, yet I have heard stories of educated young people who have never worked and who have lost all hope of finding a job. I have heard stories of parents who go to bed at night with no hope of meeting the demands of the school debt collectors for their children's outstanding school fees. These are just some of the stories of our people, almost 20 years into freedom. Our people are hurting. They are crying out for the vision of a future where there are opportunities for all of us, where there is enough wealth for all to share in, and where their children will know that if they work hard, do their part and look for opportunity, they will find it.
The Department of Economic Development surely has a massive role to play in crafting this vision for the future of our people. Indeed, Minister Patel has crafted this department's contribution to that future vision with his New Growth Path. But what has become of the New Growth Path and its proposals in the year since its announcement? Let us take stock and aggregate the value of the New Growth Path contribution to our country's economic policy. When studying the document released by Minister Patel in 2010, one finds numerous goals and objectives. Most famously, the New Growth Path aims to create 5 million jobs by 2020. I spent some time looking for actual substantive proposals on how to achieve these objectives in this document and I could find only a few.
On the macroeconomic side, Minister Patel proposed a loose monetary policy aimed at achieving lower interest rates. In simple language, Minister Patel wants lower interest rates at the SA Reserve Bank. This has all been ignored by the Reserve Bank Governor, Gill Marcus. On the microeconomic side, Minister Patel proposed a series of interesting interventions, very few of which have been taken seriously by any government department or stakeholder. Suggestions in the New Growth Path on strengthening the competition authorities, which we wholeheartedly support, seem laughable now in the context of the way in which Minister Patel, together with Ministers Joemat- Pettersson and Davies, undermined the competition authorities with their challenge of the Walmart and Massmart merger.
It is astonishing that a Minister of state could lead an appeal against foreign investment in our economy. The millions spent on appealing that case is not only a wasteful use of resources but is, frankly, an embarrassment to South Africa in the eyes of foreign investors. We need to be open and honest to foreign investors. It is seriously flawed logic that concludes that foreign competition in our retail market is bad for South Africa. More competition will lower prices for South Africans struggling with rapid increases in the cost of living. In addition, every foreign entrant into our market is an opportunity and not a threat. South Africans will have immense opportunity to benefit from these particular investors, since they will likely use South Africa as a base to expand into Africa, giving our producers potential access to African markets.
However, when one looks into the other key proposals in the New Growth Path, one finds new areas that are actually being taken seriously by government. Minister Patel's proposals on salary, wage and bonus caps have been ignored by all, and unions have refused to even consider the wage moderation model proposed by Minister Patel. [Interjections.] However, some of the proposals in the New Growth Path have been taken up, for example, the review of our broad-based black economic empowerment, BBBEE, legislation and the review of our labour policies to protect contract workers from abuse, but there is little evidence to suggest that these reforms would not have occurred in any event without the publication of the New Growth Path.
Studying the department's actions from last year, it seems that the only real outcomes emanating from the NGP are some stakeholder accords that the Minister had signed. These included accords on the green economy, the local procurement of goods and an accord on national skills development. These accords are nonbinding in nature. It remains to be seen whether any real impact will be felt by their signing, since there is little information available on the monitoring of the agreements reached. To what extent has the accord on the procurement of local goods added value to our society? To what extent has this accord increased employment on the ground, where each and every one of us works?
The government has already indicated that it would not be following the accord on local procurement with the ongoing infrastructure build programme. So, one has to wonder how much credibility these accords carry with their various signatories. So, after looking at the New Growth Path one year after its launch, one can draw a few important conclusions: Firstly, almost every aspect of the Department of Economic Development and the NGP could be covered by the Industrial Policy Action Plan at the Department of Trade and Industry, the rolling budget process at Treasury and the National Development Plan being rolled-out by the National Planning Commission. Secondly, the inception of the Department of Economic Development and the NGP has only served to muddle our economic policy- making process, contributing to the economic policy paralysis of this government. Finally, Minister Patel's actions and proposals systematically favour the trade union movement above the general wellbeing of our citizens and economy at large. [Interjections.]
The great tragedy is that there are so many constructive proposals from civil society and the opposition benches that any Department of Economic Development that actually lives up to its name would implement without a moment's notice: the youth wage subsidy; reforming the labour market to become more labour absorptive; improving our education system to produce the skills needed for growth; changing government's stance to be more open to foreign investment; giving the competition authorities the tools and space to root out anticompetitive behaviour that actually causes damage to our economy; containing the cost of living by examining government's impact on the poor through administered prices; reviewing our special economic zones to provide much stronger incentives for growth, investment and so much more.
Hon members, the success of our economic policy can best be measured by the experience of our people on the ground where we work. Look, for example, to the life of the average machinist working in a textile factory. On average, she would earn roughly R2 100 per month. Yet, in the recent past, her cost of living would have increased dramatically as food, fuel and electricity prices have gone through the roof. How does she sustain her standard of living if the cost of basic living increases to the tune of hundreds of rand, while her income remains stagnant?
The reality is that the poor can only share in our economic growth to improve their lives when growth is, firstly, fast enough to create large numbers of jobs and, secondly, if incomes are growing relative to the cost of basic living conditions. That way people would have more money to invest in their children's education and take ownership of their own future. That is the vision of the future that our people are crying out for - a vision that puts them first, above political considerations or ideologies, and a vision of single-minded determination to create opportunity and improve the lives of our people. I thank you. [Applause.]