South Africa Economy Still Distorted

Head of the African National Congress’s economic transformation committee, Enoch Godongwana, says for the economy to benefit all people, its structure needs to change. He was speaking on Morning Live at the 5th ANC Policy Conference in Nasrec, Johannesburg.

The National Policy Conference serves as a roadmap to look at the current policies and make recommendations, amendments and or new policies to benefit South Africans, SABC reported.  

Godongwana said, the structural changes to be discussed include the need to grow employment as well as the ownership structure of the economy. Given our past in South Africa, the structure of the economy is still distorted, it still reflects the apartheid legacy, he added.

Meanwhile, the Economic Development Minister, Ebrahim Patel, said his department is looking into expanding the powers of the Competition Commission and amending the Competition Act. The commission recently exposed collusive conduct in various sectors, he said during an ANC progressive business forum breakfast briefing in Johannesburg.

“We are looking at changing the mandate of the competition authorities, giving them more power and more authority to investigate where there are high levels of concentration and to give effective remedies to deal with those.

“So we will be introducing through the cabinet process amendments to the Competition Act to give the competition authorities a wider remit so that we can help to ensure that our economy is inclusive and all South Africans have an opportunity.”