Hon House Chair, hon members of this House, fellow South Africans, colleagues and compatriots ...
... asothukanga ke thina kuba siyazi ukuba aba basekunxele kwam baya kuphatha igqudu besilwa nemigaqo nkqubo enenkqubela phambili yombutho i- ANC. Siyazi ukuba igunya abaliphetheyo kukukhusela iimfuno zabo bazisuswana zibomvana. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[... we are not surprised because we know that hon members on my left will strive to fight against the successful policies of the ANC. We know that their authority is to protect the needs of those who are rich.]
It is our view that adding value to our minerals and natural resources can overcome unemployment and create decent work. And, yes, it can also lead to responsible profits. Beyond using our right to vote to put a government in power, what can we do? Recently you, the people of South Africa, voted in the ANC. Thank you. However, how can we ensure that productivity in the public and private sectors is at the optimum level? The answer to this question, we know, is not as straightforward as it should be ideally.
Government creates the enabling environment for economic growth and service value for various deliverables. However, both the public sector and the private sector must improve in order to improve productivity. This does not include only the workers, but also efficient and effective management, which knows that better working conditions, team spirit and decent pay lead to increased productivity. Productive management that pursues beneficiation, and a productive workforce can together promote economic growth. This in turn contributes to revenue, which enables government to deliver more quality service to the people.
South Africa is committed to reindustrialisation and an inclusive economy. The ANC government is using the Industrial Policy Action Plan within the framework of the National Development Plan to implement this.
A consistent message from the Minister of Trade and Industry to all South Africans, and particularly to business, is that "South Africa and Africa need to move up the global value chain". One of the findings in the colloquium on beneficiation concluded exactly this.
Further, we believe that this can be achieved through increasing beneficiation for the benefit of economic growth and job creation, particularly downstream value addition. What do we mean by value addition? It means simply adding value to a raw material by taking it to at least the next stage of production. Of course, we know there can be many stages of production. For example, in titanium there are at least five stages, and at every stage the value of the product increases and the number of workers grows.
Downstream value addition refers to the activities of further processing of raw materials from their natural forms to finished products. Both increasing manufacturing and exporting manufactured goods will increase employment, because, as we know, the manufacturing sector is more labour- intensive than other sectors. The ANC government in Mangaung resolved to focus on labour-intensive sectors. [Interjections.] Unfortunately, the people of South Africa have given the ANC a mandate to rule this country and those who aspire to rule must wait for their turn. [Interjections.]
According to Statistics SA, this year 12% of the people employed in the country were employed in the manufacturing sector. This is more than 1,7 million people employed in this value-adding sector. The benefits of value addition are that it can create long-term solutions, rather than short-term fixes. It can solve the problems of unemployment, low economic growth and high levels of imports.
Let us use the forestry sector, as it illustrates at least five major stages of value addition. Planting seedlings, nurturing them and later harvesting the trees is labour-intensive. Then, the manufacturing sectors use the timber inputs and transform these primary inputs into high-value products. The downstream beneficiation process creates employment along the value chain. Isn't it that we are committed to creating jobs in this term?
The many opportunities presented in various sectors, as set out in the Industrial Policy Action Plan, call for vigorous implementation. Thank you, Chair. [Time expired.] [Applause.]