Cape Town - President Jacob Zuma has urged South Africans to take advantage of the opportunities that will be created by a massive new infrastructure build programme.
Addressing a breakfast event at Grand West Casino hosted by the New Age newspaper, Zuma said South Africans should take advantage of the "window period" created by the government with his announcement in the State of the Nation Address yesterday on infrastructure projects, and participate in building the economy.
Last night, Zuma announced that the country would spend billions of rands over the coming years on rail, road, and economic links in five regions in the country and on building new universities and refurbishing hospitals.
"We believe it [the key infrastructure projects] is going to change the economic landscape of the country and connect it to the continent," said Zuma, adding that it was now clear for anyone where investment had to be placed in the economy.
"There are massive opportunities that are coming, let us take advantage," he said, pointing out that for example South Africa had a significant coastline but was not servicing commercial shipping on a big scale.
He said the setting up of the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission in September last year showed that it was "no longer business as usual" for government, as the commission had already started identifying projects which had clear timeframes.
Zuma called on big companies to help develop small businesses and pointed out that large firm that did so would benefit and grow bigger.
South African firms should also enter Africa with more vigor, he said, adding that the continent was one of the most promising investment regions in the world at the moment.
He said while many felt that South Africa was not a powerful country, he believed otherwise.
"I believe we are very big. I have always said if Japan, an island economy, can grow, why can't we?" said Zuma of one of the countries that rapidly rebuilt itself after the Second World War to become one of the biggest economies in the world by the 1980s.
He believed South Africa had made progress but added that the country still faced challenges.
With rapid urbanisation following the end of apartheid, the country found itself with a major infrastructure shortage, he said.
In answer to a question on why the country did not create many jobs last year, Zuma said he believed that South Africa "did very well" in the face of the challenges globally.
"The fact that we were able to create jobs even in that situation tells you that we didn't do too badly."
In answer to a question from a caller on whether factories that were closed down in Queenstown and Butterworth in the Eastern Cape would be started up again, Zuma said the government would be revitalising the rural areas and stimulating economic growth there.
In reponse to whether the government would be considering nationalisation, he said nationalisation was not the government's policy.
"We have been saying this inside the country and outside the country. It doesn't mean because one [ANC member] has a view, that it is national policy," he said, adding that the government's policy was one of a mixed economy where the state and business partnered together.
In answer to another question from someone on the floor on what keeps him awake at night, Zuma said it was the problem of the poor.
"Every night I think what can we do to alleviate their plight," he said.
