Hon Deputy Speaker, the target of 5 million jobs by 2010, as envisaged in the New Growth Path, is a pipe dream. South Africans from all walks of life are increasingly waking up to this fact. Even the Minister of Economic Development has admitted that the target was always a stretch.
According to the Development Bank of Southern Africa, government is overestimating the employment intensity of growth by only aiming for 7%. We need growth of 10% or more in order to achieve set targets. This is a far cry from the roughly 3% we can muster currently, with not much promise of improvement in the future. This is evident in the continual downward revision of growth expectations by the National Treasury.
We will not be able to grow the economy by growing the public sector only. No country in the past has been able to do this and it will not change tomorrow. Our bloated executive is cutting the lifeblood of our long-term sustainable growth prospects. Government should play only a facilitating role in enabling, among others, the private sector to create jobs.
The state cannot continue to borrow money to drive consumption. We need greater emphasis on capital formation. We need to do everything in our power to promote skills development, with specific emphasis on entrepreneurial activity and innovation. Bureaucracy and red tape continue to curb potential. The little the government has done in this regard has been exposed by capacity gaps and institutional weaknesses. If we shift our focus to the amount of sustainable business created by 2020, we shall see employment naturally flowing from this.