South Africans ask for transparency from their leaders, so I think it’s a step in the right direction that President Cyril Ramaphosa will now write a weekly newsletter to the nation.

Today saw the first such newsletter, titled ‘From the Desk of the President’, with Ramaphosa saying that each week will feature a discussion of “some of the issues that interest and concern South Africans, and…the work we are doing in government to tackle these issues”.

Can we deal with the NPA and whether they’re arresting and charging anyone based on the evidence presented at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture?

Oh, he has touched on that. A good start, then.

You can read the emailed newsletter in full here, but let’s pick out some salient points with the help of BusinessTech:

…The president noted that residents and business leaders are deeply concerned about the state of the economy and the stubbornly high rates of unemployment.

“After a decade of low growth and deepening poverty, people are looking for signs of progress in tackling the many challenges confronting our country,” he said.

“These concerns are real. This year, the economy will record growth that is lower than expected (and much lower than what we need). Government finances are stretched about as far as they can go, and several industries are looking at retrenching workers.”

Ramaphosa added that much of the country’s confidence has dissipated as the reality of the country’s problems become clearer.

Honesty is the best policy (as rare as it is to find in politics), but that’s quite brutal for a Monday.

Ramaphosa did spruce things up with a little optimism:

Ramaphosa said that the country now has the common task of ‘rebuilding confidence’, based not merely on hope and expectation of change, but on concrete things that make a difference in the economy.

This will include real actions that ‘move the needle’, he said.

“Most of the people I speak to recognise that we have made progress in turning our country around,” he said.

“The changes that have taken place in many state-owned enterprises and in bodies like the NPA, SARS, the police and the State Security Agency give people confidence that we can restore the credibility and integrity of the State. It shows that we are serious about tackling corruption and ending state capture.”

Maybe, but there is so much work still to be done.

The president also highlighted the reforms that have already been made:

“It is clear that, as a country, we are taking firm action to grow the economy and create jobs. But we need to do more to turn things around. We need to finalise a comprehensive growth strategy that takes all the work being done to another level,” he said.

“I am certain that with the active involvement of all sectors of society, this will be achieved.

“South Africans are ready to rise to the challenge.”

You do your bit, Cyril, and we’ll do ours.

Again, I think it’s a step in the right direction to have some sort of weekly communication like a newsletter, but it won’t be long before Ramaphosa is held to account for the promises made in these emails.

[source:businesstech]