President Jacob Zuma’s mid-year review on the economy is a farce, Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane said on Wednesday.

“It was an exercise in saying how we have a plan, it’s working and we must continue with the same plan,” he told News24 at the South West Gauteng College in Roodepoort, where he outlined the DA’s plans to deal with the economic crisis.

“I wish he would have announced immediate and tangible plans that say: here are the actions we plan to take. His failure to do so does not inspire confidence…”

Zuma said on Tuesday that electricity constraints are expected to ease and this should have a positive effect on the country’s economic growth, which is expected to increase steadily to at least 3% in the next three years.

Maimane said the issue is that government does not have any short-term plans to deal with the crisis.

“We need an urgent solution and the urgent is to allow private co-generation investment to be put into that space. You fail to do that, you don’t stabilise the grid.”

Energy security

It is crucial that South Africa become energy secure, he said.

Legislation is needed to allow private co-generation investment to be put into place as soon as possible, he said.

“I think the president here is misled on the basis of the fact that he has failed to understand the critical nature that this is,” Maimane said.

The DA has set out a five-point “jobs” plan, as part of its Vision 2029 campaign.

The five points are:

– Act now to solve the energy crisis;

– Sector-specific interventions;

– Support for small business;

– Labour market reform; and

– Policy certainty. News24