ANC's Economic Plan: Ramaphosa Still Dancing to the Tune of Capital

Dr. Reneva Fourie

The ANC’s ten-point economic action plan announced on 6 October is an ambitious attempt to steer South Africa towards recovery. It recognises the gravity of the crises we face in electricity, logistics, and industrial decline, and it aspires to rebuild state capacity and diversify trade.

Yet, instead of breaking the grip of narrow market-led growth and placing the needs of the majority at the centre, it remains a familiar pattern of technocratic announcements shaped to appease global markets and domestic conglomerates. 

The country’s current economic distress was not inevitable. Much of it is the result of deliberate policy choices. For decades, the ANC’s allies – the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions – repeatedly warned that a market-centred approach would entrench inequality and weaken the very state institutions needed for development.

They tabled workable, people-centred proposals that could have steered the economy towards inclusive growth and stronger public capacity. Instead, their advice was sidelined in the name of market confidence. Had the ANC listened to its alliance partners and pursued a developmental and redistributive path, South Africa would not be in this predicament today.

The ten-point plan now being offered reads less like a fresh vision and more like a familiar set of promises that still leaves the country dancing to the tune of capital. One of the clearest examples of this is the continued reliance on preferential electricity tariffs for energy-intensive industries such as ferrochrome and steel.

For decades, public resources have subsidised these sectors, which remain capital-intensive and export-driven. Instead of compelling these firms to invest in modern technology, energy efficiency, and downstream beneficiation in exchange for cheaper power, it proposes that the state, once again, absorbs the costs. This builds upon the logic of the old Mineral Energy Complex, which has shaped South Africa’s inequality for the past century.

Similarly, the promise to rebuild chrome and manganese industries by finalising export tariffs, expanding alloys and battery precursors sounds innovative but does not break with commodity dependence.

Beneficiating raw ores is preferable to exporting them unprocessed. However, it still leaves the economy vulnerable to global price volatility and trapped in a model that yields little benefit for workers and communities.

The plan’s embrace of private sector participation in ports, rail, and energy signals a retreat from the idea of a developmental state. Instead of rebuilding public capability and using state-owned enterprises to drive national industrialisation, profitable segments are opened to private operators.

At the same time, unprofitable responsibilities that service poor and remote communities remain with the state and continue to be under-resourced, contradicting the commitment to rebuilding state-owned enterprises. Such an arrangement, which prevents internal cross-subsidisation, would deepen inequality in access to infrastructure and would represent the socialisation of costs and the privatisation of gains.

Measures directed at township and rural economies, as well as support for small enterprises, also sound progressive but risk falling flat in practice. By privatising logistics, the much-needed secondary networks required to get goods to markets are compromised.

The plan also ignores the grim reality of dysfunctional municipalities that have been eroded by corruption and austerity. Without a decisive rebuilding of local government, these efforts will be frustrated by mismanagement and elite capture.

The ANC itself acknowledges that the weakness of the state is a central obstacle, and it commits to professionalising the public service and enforcing consequence management. This is precisely the area in which the ANC’s alliance partners have long provided detailed guidance.

Both the SACP and Cosatu consistently advocated for the professionalisation of the public service, for decisive consequence management to root out corruption, and for a return to robust state-led industrial development. Some of the recommendations have finally been captured in the ten-point plan, albeit in a diluted form. But it remains within a market-oriented framework.

For the plan to work, it would have to treat the rebuilding of public capability as the foundation for recovery. The stringent policies and regulations that guide public service appointments must be implemented across all three spheres of government.

Furthermore, the focus of industrial support should shift away from the energy-intensive giants of the past towards labour-absorbing sectors that meet domestic needs and can drive development. Energy investments, including new transmission lines, should be treated as a public good.

Wherever possible, they should remain under public ownership with governance structures that include worker representation and community trusts. Any private participation must be transparently procured and bound by commitments to local content, fair labour practices, and affordable access.

Agro-processing, food manufacturing, textiles, green building materials, and decentralised renewable energy projects are better suited to creating jobs, stimulating local economies, and building resilience.

Public employment programmes can be scaled up to provide livelihoods while rebuilding social and productive infrastructure, restoring degraded ecosystems, and retrofitting public facilities for energy efficiency. A universal basic income grant would stabilise household consumption and stimulate local demand.

Financing a redistributive and inclusive growth agenda is possible through a more progressive and transparent fiscal approach. This includes closing corporate tax loopholes, redirecting wasteful tax incentives, and responsibly channelling public pension funds into long-term infrastructure bonds protected by rigorous governance safeguards.

A credible and sustainable fiscal framework focused on productive investment would give workers, savers, and investors confidence that resources are being used for national development rather than private enrichment.

The ANC’s ten-point plan promises urgency yet clings to the same market-led path that has failed for decades. Given the grave state of the economy and its waning political support, the ANC should prioritise guidance from its historical alliance partners.

If South Africa continues to dance to the tune of capital, the economy will remain dependent on commodities, prone to crises, and unable to absorb its labour force. Breaking that rhythm requires courage to rebuild state power in the public interest and to place the needs of workers and communities at the heart of every policy choice. 

* Dr Reneva Fourie is a policy analyst specialising in governance, development, and security.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.