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Addressing the Nation
ADDRESSING THE NATION
APRIL 2021
In his letter to the nation on April 12, President Ramaphosa opened with remarks about South Africa’s recovery plan being forwardlooking – a time to “to forge a new economy in a new global reality.” Our President emphasised the opportunities for job creation inherent in the digital economy and, in doing so, gave us some good news:
“Last week, South Africa was ranked first in the world as a destination for global business services – often called business process outsourcing – in a survey of over 600 executives from eight key sourcing markets, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA. This sector includes call centres, technical support and back and front office services for major multinationals and South African firms. This is truly a remarkable achievement. In a short space of time, our country has propelled itself from a relatively unknown destination for offshore customer service delivery, in the shadow of large competitors, such as India and the Philippines, to the very forefront of the global industry.”
He then outlined the four advantages our country has as a destination for business services: a sophisticated digital infrastructure, including mobile networks and high-speed broadband; a young, dynamic and skilled workforce; a high level of English proficiency; and last, but not least, we are positioned in a similar time zone to our key export markets. President Ramaphosa emphasised that this would not have been possible without the proactive efforts of government and the sector over several years:
“Led by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, government has worked closely with Business Process Enabling South Africa, the industry association, to market our country as a destination for investment, embarking on roadshows and campaigns around the world to demonstrate our strengths and capabilities. Government introduced the Global Business Services Incentive just over two years ago to encourage investment and support job creation in the sector. The incentive has been successful in reducing costs and attracting new investors to South Africa. The Presidential Employment Stimulus*, which we launched in October last year in
response to the economic impact of the pandemic, supported the expansion of this incentive. The stimulus has enabled the creation of 8,000 new jobs in the industry during the last two quarters, most of which have gone to previously unemployed youth.”
The SAYouth.mobi, is a platform for the youth to access a range of opportunities and is a recruitment tool which forms part of the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention. buyers and investors, the sector in South Africa is on track to achieve its target of 100,000 new jobs by the end of 2023 and 500,000 new jobs by the end of 2030.”
President Ramaphosa ended his letter exhorting us all to pause from wrestling with our immediate challenges and celebrate our country’s true potential.
“The result of all these efforts is that the sector in South Africa has grown at twice the global growth rate for the sector since 2014 and three times faster than key competitors. It has added 40,000 jobs to the economy since 2018, with young people making up 82% of these new jobs and women comprising 65% of the workforce. The sector generates R1.9 billion a year in export revenues and attracts significant capital investment. With global demand on the rise, and with a compelling and competitive proposition to global
*The Presidential Employment Stimulus
The Presidential Employment Stimulus was first announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his address to a joint sitting of Parliament on 15 October 2020 and a third progress report on this crucial initiative - which reflects data available up until February this year - was released by The Presidency at the beginning of April.
“The Presidential Employment Stimulus is the most rapid expansion of public employment programmes in South Africa’s history, in response to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The stimulus supports both traditional public employment programmes, such as through the natural resource management programmes of the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries and the Welisizwe Rural Bridges Programme, and innovative forms of livelihood support, such as through income support for practitioners in the early childhood development (ECD) sector.” – The Presidency The Report reflects that impressive progress in terms of reaching its targets. A final progress report for Phase I of the stimulus will be released once data for March 2021 is available.
Key highlights of the February progress report include:
• The number of opportunities supported increased by 159,909 between January and February 2021, to a total of 593,076. This includes both jobs created or retained and livelihoods supported, for all programmes that are currently in implementation.
• Over 25,000 applications from ECD facilities were received in February 2021, for support grants to 125,000 ECD workers. 140 civil society organisations assisted with the application process and are conducting site verifications for unregistered centres. The Department of Social Development is currently processing these applications.
• The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development has now issued over 35,000 vouchers for production inputs to farmers and is on track to meet its overall target.
Design work is currently underway for Phase II of the employment stimulus, which has been allocated R11-billion in the 2021/22 financial year. This will continue the important support that the stimulus has provided to individuals and communities across South Africa.
