At least President Cyril Ramaphosa has finally realised that there is no way out of the unemployment crisis without placing our economic strategy on a massive industrialisation plan embedded on the manufacturing sector.
But, this realisation must be placed under a class microscope to establish its possible results and its potential beneficiaries. There are three things that must be clear when you plan to industrialise for the purpose of creating work and eliminating persistent inequality:
- First, the state must be central to an industrial plan. A factory economy requires a hands-on public security strategy to protect the industry from imperial markets who may weaken its trade certainty.
- Second, this manufacturing plan must articulate the country’s developmental targets in productive terms for it to establish value in the fiscus. It must create jobs for the disfranchised, it must train existing workers, it must produce catalytic goods and services that will generate production in the economy, it must incentivise infrastructure development, it must contribute to the social development of the community where it is based, and it must be managed by the best available talent around to secure its sustainability.
- Third, it must be surrounded by a government that is intentional about creating a conducive environment for its existence and trade. For instance, if the government is interested in seeing this state-led industrial sector make meaningful contributions to our economic transformation targets, then it would build the necessary roads, railways, technology, ports, access to markets, and a public bank that will finance new entrants into the space to thrive.
The State of the Nation Address (Sona) as delivered by the president seems to make these commitments but only as declarations. He seems to have placed all faith concerning our key aspects of transformative development on the private sector.
From water to electricity to infrastructure development – and even the leadership oversight of our education, land reform, and labour relations – they are all being placed in the hands of the market.
These private intentions are worrisome, and should be contested or we risk having assets purchased by the public no longer in the hands of a people’s mandate.
This strategy has never worked anywhere. There is no country that has suffered conflict, colonialism, wars, and underdevelopment that turned around on its own potential and outsourced its development to foreign billionaires.
Post-conflict societies such as China, Cuba, Japan, and Singapore have all championed their transformative development according to their own public terms – as led by the state. China is a world-class industrial economy today because its public strategy and leadership informed its economic targets. Its textile industries are financially and legally protected by the state.
Western countries have also adopted the same patterns of development. The US government is leading the charge to restore the manufacturing sector back to its shores. The private sector is not doing that for it. Instead, the private sector is seen as an ally that supports the US state’s strategy to lead the entire economic landscape of the globe with a military ideology.
In this regard, if SA is to turn around and land itself on a sustainable path of recovery, it needs to self-determine its own industrial trajectory that will be owned and controlled by hard-working South Africans. This can be done when the basics for industrialisation are in place.
As the beginning, the state must fix and modernise the country’s railway system. It is impossible to have a vibrant, productive, and a connected manufacturing economy without a functioning train system to transport people and goods – safely, consistently, and quickly. This should be followed up by an urgent task to upgrade roads and expand existing infrastructure to minimise our costs of doing business.
These specific items are also central to the dismantling of the spatial legacies of our cities and towns as workers would begin using an affordable and reliable transport system to get to work and their homes.
SA is located in the middle of the world. It's surrounded by oceans that have two gates opened to Eastern and Western markets. Its population is young and largely semi-skilled. It has the best available infrastructure compared to what the rest of Africa has to offer at the moment.
Surely, this has to be a country with a vibrant industrial economy where more work opportunities are available than the people who actually need them. This will remain only a dream existing in speech until we reorientate our developmental consciousness towards a self-determined industrial mindset.
• Dr Mzileni is a research associate in the faculty of humanities at Nelson Mandela University
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