A mounting challenge facing all South Africans is not what you might think. The challenge facing us is that we are confronted with words and phrases that simply do not mean what we might believe them to mean. A case in point is ‘economic recovery and transformation strategy’. Is it part of a two-pronged strategy or a collective strategy?

Consider the individual parts. The most succinct definition that I could find for ‘economic recovery’ is from www.investopedia.com, which is a business-cycle stage following a recession. It is characterised by a sustained period of improving business activity. Investopedia adds that, during an economic recovery, gross domestic product growth remains positive, with ebbs and flows as the economy rebounds.

According to this definition, does ‘economic recovery and transformation strategy’ imply an acknowledgement that the South African economy is in recession – that ‘r’ word that government tends not to want to acknowledge? An economic recovery is the first stage of expansion, with the three following stages in the business cycle being ‘peak’, ‘contraction’ and ‘trough’.

As for a ‘transformation strategy’, this is an unsearchable term. The only real result that a search for ‘transformation strategy’ returns is ‘transformational strategy’, which is defined as making drastic and significant changes within a business to change the course of its short- and long-term viability.

Could this be interpreted to imply that, in its present form, the South African economy is not a viable economy? A synonym for ‘viable’ is ‘feasible’, which means being capable of working successfully.

There should be an acknowledgement that the South African economy has been transformed – that it has been subjected to a process of transformation. This begs the question: What then does the South African economy now need to be transformed to?

Consider the governing African National Congress’s statement on the outcomes of the meeting of its National Executive Committee that was held from September 27 to 30. With respect to ‘An Economic Recovery and Transformation Strategy’, the opening paragraph states: “South Africa urgently needs to turn around its economic performance, as the rates of growth and investment are too low. There are serious limitations on the ability of the economy to respond to massive unemployment, entrenched and rising inequalities, persistent poverty and slow recovery of our industrial capabilities. We welcome the last quarter that saw a rise in economic growth.”

What ‘investment’? Foreign or domestic? To ask the the obvious question: Why is there an expectation of foreign investment when there is a reluctance by locals to invest in the South African economy? Further, in what economic activity is investment desired? And we must also bear in mind that investors, at the very least, desire a financial return. It is near inconceivable to expect an investment in South Africa’s utilities to generate any return, unless it is underwritten by government.

Unemployment is one of the surest signs that an economy is not growing; in South Africa, this is due to deindustrialisation, which is defined as a reduction in industrial activity or industrial capacity in a region or economy. Thus, the challenge is not to ‘turn around economic performance’, but the reindustrialisation of the South African economy. Reindustrialisation is defined as “the economic, social and political process of organising national resources for the purpose of re-establishing industries”. The process proceeds as a result of a need to reinvigorate national economies.

The real indictment on the present structure of the South African economy is not that it is not growing; rather it is its entrenchment of massive unemployment, rising inequality and persistent poverty.

Nothing that you have read here is new. You have heard it before. What you have not seen is for it to be remedied. As Dr Phil says: “There’s a time when you stop talking and start doing.” As far as South Africa is concerned, there is no time to start doing something like the present.