When I read President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address on June 20, all 6 741 words of it, the chorus of rock group Nickelback’s song Rockstar – “So how you gonna do it?” – kept reverberating in my mind.

Where to start? “As we enter this new administration, we will focus on seven priorities: economic transformation and job creation; education, skills and health; consolidating the social wage through reliable and quality basic services is another important priority; spatial integration, human settlements and local government; social cohesion and safe communities is (sic) another key priority; building a capable, ethical and developmental State; a better Africa and world.” Economic growth is seemingly not a priority, yet the President said “we cannot turn our fortunes around without a relentless focus on economic growth”.

The ‘priorities’ led me to think of the Serenity Prayer: “Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

In addition to the ‘priorities’, there are ‘challenges’ and ‘concern’ – the President said: “Yet, we also meet at a time when our country is confronted by severe challenges. Our economy is not growing. Not enough jobs are being created. This is the concern that rises above all others.”

He also said: “At the same time, we must restore the NDP (National Development Plan) to its place at the centre of our national effort.” The NDP “aims to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030”.

The preferred narrative copncerning the economic ills of the present is grounded in the past: “It is only when we reach consistently high rates of growth that we will be able to reverse the economic damage of our past.” Do the following qualify as economic damage of the past? “One reason for the lacklustre economic performance has been the load-shedding early this year, together with the continued uncertainty in the supply of electricity and the state of Eskom”, “to ensure that the State is able to effectively enable economic and social development, it is essential that we strengthen our State-owned enterprises . . . We will build on the work we have already begun to address problems of poor governance, inefficiency and financial sustainability” and “we must address the high cost of doing business in South Africa, and complicated and lengthy regulatory processes”.

According to the President, the corrective action that should be taken “requires us to re-imagine our industrial strategy, to unleash private investment and energise the State to boost economic inclusion”. He added that the private sector had committed to investing R840-billion in 43 projects over 19 sectors and to creating 155 000 jobs in the next five years. Unfortunately, this is capital investment, not in employment, equating to R5 419 354.84 for each job created.

The President further stated: “It requires the State to effectively play its role as an enabler that provides basic services and critical infrastructure, a regulator that sets rules that create equitable opportunities for all players, and a redistributor that ensures that the most vulnerable in society are protected and given a chance to live up to their full potential. There is another role we want the State to play, that is the entrepreneurial role.” It sounds like the State – government – functioning as judge, jury and executioner.

So, what are the priority industrial sectors that will drive economic growth? “We will give priority attention to the economic sectors that have the greatest potential for growth. Drawing on our successes in the automotive sector, we will implement master plans developed with business and labour in industries like clothing and textiles, gas, chemicals and plastics, renewables, and steel and metals fabrication sectors. Nothing new here, apart from ‘renewables’. What all this boils down to is a mere resurrection of South Africa’s 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s industrial structural adjustment programmes, many of which were annihilated by the country’s World Trade Organisation tariff liberalisation commitments.

None of what is proposed will make the South African economy an economic growth rockstar. The chorus reverberates: “So, how you gonna do it?”