Policymakers need to emulate the former Chinese leader’s bold economic reforms to break the failed economic mould
Chinese premier Deng Xiaoping, left, and US president Jimmy Carter sit at a press conference in Washington, DC, US, in this January 31 1979 file photo. Picture: GETTY IMAGES/DIRCK HALSTEAD
In 2021, almost 30 years after the start of majority rule, SA struggles with the acutest of employment problems and is yet to find the formula for rapid and inclusive economic growth. Yet it seems to persist with the same economic model that has singularly failed to produce prosperity and employment. One has to wonder whether it is not long overdue for SA policymakers to emulate Deng and make bold economic reforms that might break the country’s failed economic mould.
With the SA economy delivering anaemic growth and with the unemployment rate stuck at about 30% — among the world’s highest — one would think the country’s economic policymakers would conclude that something fundamental is not working. This might induce them to engage in some serious soul-searching to figure out what might be wrong with the economic model.
If Deng were in charge of the SA economy he would be sure to find a politically acceptable way to make the economy more dynamic and more labour intensive. He might do so, as he did in China, by experimenting with the creation of new industrial zones in which employers would be freed from collective bargaining and burdensome government regulation — provided they could demonstrate that they were making new labour-intensive investments.
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