Although it is too early to offer a reflection on this year, as there are still over 50 days left before saying au revoir to 2020, the release of the Economic Stimulus and Recovery Plan made me contemplate South Africa’s post-1994 economic policy documents.

Let us start: 1995 saw the introduction of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), which identified five major policy programmes, namely the creation of a strong, dynamic and balanced economy; the development of human resource capacity; ensuring that no one suffers racial or gender discrimination in hiring; the development of a prosperous, balanced regional economy in Southern Africa; and the democratisaton of the State and society.

The Growth, Employment and Redistribution, or GEAR, programme followed in 1996, and it aimed to stimulate faster economic growth. The policy encompassed most of the social objectives of the RDP but was also aimed at reducing fiscal deficits, lowering inflation, maintaining exchange-rate stability, decreasing barriers to trade and liberalising capital flows.

Ten years later, in 2006, the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative South Africa (Asgisa) was introduced, acknowledging the challenges of prolonged poverty, driven by unemployment, low earnings and the jobless nature of economic growth. Asgisa’s objectives were to reduce poverty by 2010 and halving unemployment by 2014 – from 28% in 2004 to 14% by 2012. It also recognised that the policies implemented to address these issues needed to be at the forefront of economic policy decision-making.

Then, in 2010, the New Growth Path (NGP) was released, and it aimed to accelerate economic growth in ways that rapidly reduce poverty, unemployment and inequality. The NGP was seen as a necessary policy to help overcome these structural challenges and contribute to higher levels of economic growth.

In 2014, the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 was introduced to serve four broad objectives: providing overarching goals for what South Africa wants to achieve by 2030; building consensus on the key obstacles to achieving these goals and what needs to be done to overcome those obstacles; providing a shared long-term strategic framework within which more detailed planning can take place to advance the long-term goals set out in the NDP; and creating a basis for making choices about how best to use limited resources.

In 2019, the Economic Stimulus and Recovery Plan was released. It has five broad aspects: implementation of growth-enhancing economic reforms; reprioritisation of public spending to support job creation; establishment of an Infrastructure Fund; addressing pressing matters in education and health; and investing in municipal social infrastructure.

Just a year on, ‘stimulus’ became ‘reconstruction’ when the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan was released on October 15. So, in essentially a quarter of a century, the economy has gone from the Reconstruction and Development Programme to the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, the common denominator being ‘reconstruction’. Further, we have gone from a ‘development plan’ to a ‘recovery plan’.

In fact, we have had seven plans. Should you, however, consider industrial policy as part of the package, then the National Industrial Policy Framework, with its associated Industrial Policy Action Plan, brings the tally to eight.

All this reminds me of the unattributable quote, “The past is like using your rear-view mirror in your car – it’s good you glance back and see how far you’ve come, but if you stare too long, you’ll miss what’s right in front of you.”

How far has the economy really come? If anything, it seems that the economy has contracted significantly. As to just how surmountable the economic challenges are, that is right in front of South Africans – it is a matter of real concern.