PATRICK BULGER | How Ramaphosa moved the ANC’s heaven and earth

His statement that ‘the state does not create jobs, the private sector does’ is a dramatic about-turn for the ANC

17 February 2022 - 19:45

The magic words were at last spoken aloud, and the spell was instantly broken. The state does not create jobs, the private sector does. A sentence so innocent it might be a topic at a high school debating contest, or an essay for an Economics 1 course. Yet President Cyril Ramaphosa’s assertion in parliament that it is not the government’s role to create jobs is more than just a statement of an observable truth. In the ANC’s world it’s the equivalent of the astronomer Galileo Galilei declaring that the Earth does indeed orbit the sun. Not the other way around...

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