In a bid to raise funds for charity, President Cyril Ramaphosa has this morning teed off alongside a diverse stakeholder grouping during the annual Presidential Golf Challenge.
This year, President Ramaphosa partnered with an 11-year-old golfer Shalom Madlala from Malelane in the Mpumalanga province. Shalom is a provincial player in the South African Golf Development Board’s (SAGDB) program.
The PGC, held at the Atlantic Beach Golf Estate, Melkbosstrand, is held every year following the State of the Nation Address (SONA) and is hosted by the Ministry of Public Service and Administration in partnership with the private sector as part of the activities around SONA.
According to the Presidency, the challenge raises funds for charities designated by the sitting President and provides an opportunity for networking between government and the private sector.
The proceeds will be donated to the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation, which will in turn distribute funds to deserving charities to improve education and promote skills development in the communities across the country.
Job creation, economic development and investment
Speaking to members of the media on the sidelines of the PGC, the President outlined his strategy for job creation and economic growth. He highlighted that investment confidence was rising, indicating a potential increase in investments and job creation.
“As I said yesterday in the State of the Nation Address, we intend to grow our economy, we're focusing more intently on growing the economy by ensuring that our reforms take root, and we broaden our reforms as well to the second phase.
“We've done relatively well so far with our reforms, particularly when it comes to network industries our electricity, our logistics, our rail, and our ports with doing much better than we did in the past. And that in itself is a really good indicator to investors they see that we are serious and beginning to address issue that they were believing are holding back their own investment,” he said.
The President emphasised that increased investor confidence was a key driver of economic growth and job creation.
“Investment confidence is up, and once investment confidence is up, we will see a real growth in investments in our economy, and then we will see growth and creation of jobs.
“We intend to get into the second phase, which will focus on water and local government as well and the regulatory environment. So, we are intending to do a clean sweep of everything that is holding our economy back,” he said.
The President also highlighted the government's commitment to expanding public employment programs, particularly targeting young people, women, and people with disabilities. He pointed to emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence, the green economy, and the digital economy as key areas for job creation.
“And at the same time, government itself is ramping up its public employment programs, we are going to be integrating them and making sure that we bring in young people, we bring in women, we bring in disabled people and give them opportunities, real opportunities of learning new skills…we want to get into new industries, the green economy, artificial intelligence and digital economy,” he said.
The President expressed confidence that opportunities would open up in South Africa, adding that the government was excited about this prospect. He highlighted the importance of collaboration with business, labour, and social organisations in driving economic growth.
“The growth of our economy is going to revolve around pulling together and I have a sense that South Africans collectively now want the country to move forward and that nothing should hold us back and government is going to be there to facilitate that,” he said.
International relations
President Ramaphosa stressed a diplomatic approach when it comes to international relations, particularly regarding engagements with the United States and South Africa’s role in the G20.
He reiterated that the United States was an important player on the global stage.
“They're the biggest economy and they are a very important trading partner. So, we intend to deal with them in a formal way and in proper engagement. And as I said, I'm going to be sending a delegation to the world, on our own continent, to Europe, to America, Asia, and to the Middle East…to go and explain our position, more particularly our G20 objectives, because we want this G20 to be an African G20 but also to be a G20 that is going to focus on the issues that impact on the global south and humanity more broadly,” the President said.
Addressing South Africa’s stance on international negotiations, President Ramaphosa underscored the importance of open dialogue and consensus-building.
“Anybody who says some things are not for negotiation is not being realistic. We live in a world where we want to promote cooperation. We want to promote dialogue. We want to promote being able to work with others, so we want people to put their views forward.
“It must be a festival of ideas being put forward, where we sharpen each other's wits and where we put wisdom and facts on the table, so we will be willing to talk to people,” he said.
As the current president of the G20, the President said South Africa takes on the role of host and lead in dialogue.
“We are the dialogue leader; we are going to be presenting positions and therefore we are open to talking as we are open for business. And when you're open for business, you want to hear views even when they are divergent to your own views. And you want to find consensus, and once we get consensus, we're then able to move forward,” the President said. – SAnews.gov.za
