Ramaphosa and Mboweni will cause further recession: EFF
The EFF has laid the blame for the country slipping into recession on President Cyril Ramaphosa and finance minister Tito Mboweni's leadership styles.
In a statement, the EFF said: “SA's economy continues to shrink under the leadership of Cyril Ramaphosa ... The people of South Africa should know that the direction taken by [the country] under Ramaphosa and National Treasury under Tito Mboweni will cause further recession, job losses, shrinking revenue base and deepened poverty.”
ANC must take some responsibility for technical recession
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As the government grapples with how to grow and make the economy inclusive, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) released a scathing report on the country's economic landscape, revealing that it had fallen into a recession in the last quarter of 2019. The economy contracted by 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2019, recording 0.2% growth for the year.
The red berets said Ramaphosa and Mboweni's “neoliberal policies” would see the country sink further into recession.
The party also blamed “the capitalist establishment and their media representatives for falsifying the true state of SA's economy".
The Stats SA report shows that for the full year, the economy secured growth of just 0.2%, down from 2018’s 0.8%. This marks the sixth consecutive year that SA’s economy has grown below 2% and is the lowest level since 2009.
The economy shrank 1.4% in quarter four, from a revised contraction of 0.8% in the previous quarter, pushing SA into a technical recession (defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction) in the second half of 2019.
According to the EFF, if Ramaphosa's administration continues on the current trajectory, the country will experience deepened inequality, the unemployment rate will rocket, poverty will worsen and the base from which the state should collect revenue for the provision of basic services would narrow.
“The failure to grow the economy by the current representatives of the white capitalist establishment cannot and should not be blamed on external forces, but on their own incapacity to drive local economic activities and create jobs.”
The EFF has tabled an economic growth plan, in which it suggests that the government should fast-track the land redistribution process.
It says this will “guarantee access to land by all South Africans and not a few descendants of colonial settlers”.
Read the full statement here.