By Charles Molele
President Cyril Ramaphosa has assured professionals, academics and businessmen in Sandton, Johannesburg on Thursday that his administration was deeply committed to service delivery, creation of jobs and growing the South African economy.
Ramaphosa, speaking a few days before the May 8 general elections, also promised to crack the whip against under-performing Ministers and Premiers, saying he was ‘sick and tired’ of listening to excuses for non-delivery of services.
“After the 8th of May, it is time to work. We must talk about how to fix government. As President I no longer want to hear excuses from our ministers and premiers. Let’s implement, because our people deserve the best,” said Ramaphosa.
“We don’t want to take our people for granted because our people have shown hope and confidence in us. We are going to do things on time. We’ve got all the policies. We are going to stop talking and implement. This is the time for implementation.”
Ramaphosa was speaking in Sandton on Thursday night during the party’s Siyabonga Evening organized ANC’s head of policy Fikile Mbalula to listen to testimonies of those who have benefitted from ANC-led government as a result of its progressive policies such as black economic empowerment (BEE), employment equity, affirmative action and the controversial tendering system.
These included football star Doctor Khumalo, football’s super-fan Saddam Maake, education expert and former MEC of education Mary Metcalfe, businessman Sandile Zungu, celebrity DJ Shimza and Professor Mashudu Tshifularo – who recently performed a ground-breaking middle ear operation at the Steve Biko Academy Hospital in Pretoria.
Ramaphosa also promised to grow economy through his international investment drive to raise US$100 billion in investments.
He said that the government has already raised more than R300 000 billion rands through various investments coming to the country.
Ramaphosa also hailed a recent move by Nissan to invest R3 billion in the South African economy with a view to creating at least 400 new jobs in the manufacturing operation.
The massive investment would result in the vehicle manufacturing firm building a brand new Nissan Navara model, said Ramaphosa
He reiterated that Nissan’s investment in SA was an expression of confidence in the economy of the country.
“We want to build railway lines. We want to build roads. We want to build dams. After the elections, we are also going to focus on youth unemployment,” said Ramaphosa. “We have also asked many CEOs of private companies to employ young people. We want to create 1 million jobs for the youth. Today I received a report that over 18 000 job opportunities for young people have been created by the Youth Employment Services (YES) initiative. We want to create one million jobs for the youth.
