The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has slammed National Treasury’s economic recovery strategy document.
Cosatu criticised the document at a press briefing following its Central Executive Committee meeting on Thursday.
This document is trying to exploit our economic crisis by pushing a rightwing agenda that was defeated in several ANC Conferences.
Cosatu
Cosatu’s Deputy General Secretary Solly Phetoe also suggested that the document’s release was premature.
What is the status of this document? Why release a document to the public before it has gone to Cabinet? Who will be responsible for it? What if it is divergent to existing policies?
Cosatu
Tito Mboweni’s economic plan
National Treasury published the proposed strategy on its website on Tuesday.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni called on the public to submit comments on it.
The draft strategy aims at creating 1 million jobs and rebooting the economy to achieve growth rates of 2-3% in the immediate future.
Among other measures, it proposes implementing a flexible industrial policy, promoting export competition, and pursuing labour-intensive growth.
SACP also concerned
The South African Communist Party (SACP) has also expressed concern at the “sudden release” of the document.
In a statement issued on Wednesday evening, it said the document was released without following the usual policy making processes.
The party suggested that the release undermines the ANC-Cosatu-SACP alliance’s policy making processes.
It said the alliance is the “primary mandating position in relation to deployed public representatives.”