ANC tired of talking

The government will forge ahead with contentious projects that it claims will kick-start the stuttering economy - even if it is taken to court.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said in Johannesburg yesterday - at a briefing following the party's three-day national executive committee lekgotla - that President Jacob Zuma's administration would no longer tolerate protracted debates about contentious projects because they often caused investor uncertainty.

Mantashe said Zuma would convene a presidential team to drive economic growth.

"The sluggish performance of the economy in job creation, and the low level of private-sector investment, are a source of major concern," Mantashe said.

Worried by the slow pace of economic growth, the ANC seems to be pushing Zuma's administration into fast-tracking the "second phase of transition", a policy adopted by the party at its elective conference in Bloemfontein last year.

Mantashe said the government would have to take firm decisions to take the country forward, even though this might lead to its being hauled into court.

"A number of initiatives [are being] undertaken by the government to reverse the job-loss trend," said Mantashe .

Using fracking as an example of a contentious issue on which the state would have to take a stand, Mantashe said the debate about whether to allow it had been allowed to continue with no hope of a conclusion.

Fracking is a technique for extracting shale gas.

He said some countries had begun fracking to their economic benefit.

Mantashe, seemingly irritated at the repeated questioning of the government's intentions, and by predictions of imminent economic ruin, said the Zuma administration needed to forge ahead if it was to develop the struggling economy.

He said the US had experienced an energy boom since it allowed fracking - perhaps an indication that the government is finding the prospect of laying its hands on the underground riches too tantalising to resist.

Fracking in South Africa is the subject of a battle between environmentalists and energy companies, with the former claiming that serious environmental degradation would result if the technique were allowed. Energy companies stress the economic benefits.

• Yesterday's briefing also gave a glimpse of the ANC's election campaign plans. The party is likely to emphasise an improvement in the Grade 12 pass rate, increased investment in education, and its multibillion-rand infrastructure building programme.