Cyril’s top 10: key points from president’s manifesto for SA
It contained almost 9,000 words, and we read it so you don’t have to.
Here are 10 of the key points from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address on Thursday.
1. Spooks get a shake-up
“I will soon be announcing a number of urgent steps to enable the reconstitution of a professional national intelligence capability. Among the steps will be the re-establishment of the national security council chaired by the president in order to ensure better co-ordination of the intelligence and security related functions of the state as well as the re-establishment of two arms of our intelligence service, one focusing on domestic and the other on foreign intelligence.”
2. Red lines through red tape
“We have established a team that will address the policy, legal, regulatory and administrative barriers that frustrate investors. This team will report progress to cabinet on a monthly basis. The World Bank’s annual Doing Business report currently ranks South Africa 82 out of 190 countries tracked. We have set ourselves the target of being among the top 50 global performers within the next three years.”
3. Make local lekker
“We will pursue measures to increase local demand through, among other things, increasing the proportion of local goods and services procured both by government and the private sector. Increasing local demand, and reducing the consumption of imports, is important because it increases the opportunities for producers within South Africa to serve a growing market. Through this we will intensify the 'buy South Africa' programme.”
4. Smallanyana businesses
“Given the key role that small businesses play in stimulating economic activity and employment – and in advancing broad-based empowerment – we are focusing this year on significantly expanding our small business incubation programme. Township digital hubs will be established, initially in four provinces. We expect these hubs to provide a most-needed entrepreneurial service to small and medium enterprises in the rural areas and townships but more especially to young people who want to start their businesses.”..
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