Chairperson and hon members, the concept of a developmental state is difficult to agree upon. Suffice it to say that it is generally used to mean a state that drives development in contrast to a free market approach.
According to Chalmers Johnson, a US Asian scholar, a critical element in a developmental state is its ability to mobilize a nation around economic development within a capital system.
The big question to us today is to what extent does South Africa mobilise the nation and neighbouring states to economic development? Is South Africa able to maintain mass support through nationalist propaganda, improvements in living standards for workers and businesses and increase employment as well as paternalistic labour relations in large companies?
If the answer is yes to all the questions, then we are moving in the direction of a developmental state, as defined by Lenin.
A developmental state has to answer the question why the countries of East Asia are industrialised while other countries are trapped in poverty and resource dependency.
For South Africa to get out of the cycle of poverty, the following have to be done: Firstly, government departments and agencies should be provided with a clear mandate to prioritise equitable employment-creating growth and ensure that there is effective co-ordination around all programmes. Secondly, government should export industries based on development of domestic market and other government measures should be built. Thirdly, we have to ensure the improvement of the quality of life of workers by reducing the costs of basic necessities such as transport.
It is a given that the moral standing, the economic and military resources of South Africa make it to look more or less like a hegemonic power in the SADC region.
South Africa has the necessary characteristics of a hegemony as she has a political and socioeconomic vision of the transitional environments and the political willingness to implement such vision. I thank you. [Time expired.]