GDP growth data released by Statistics South Africa this morning confirms that our economic growth rate, at 3.2% in the second quarter, remains far behind the sustained 7% growth rate that our economy needs in the foreseeable future to create jobs and reduce poverty.

Before the Global Financial Crisis drove our economy into recession, our growth path already lagged behind that of comparable emerging economies - a result of the ANC government's poor policy choices. The International Panel on Growth, commissioned by then Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel, identified barriers to growth and proposed measures that could be implemented to accelerate our economic growth trajectory. The findings were not embraced within the ANC tripartite alliance, especially proposals that brought structural inefficiencies, particularly those relating to the skills mismatch, manufacturing and the labour market, sharply into focus.

Although there remains concern in several developed economies over the sustainability of their current recovery following the crisis, evidence indicates that the BRIC economies are emerging with strong economic growth prospects. Although South Africa aspires to membership of this club, entry remains elusive given our sluggish and precarious recovery from the crisis and increasingly mixed signals over the direction of our economic policy.

If our economy is expected to grow to the extent required for job creation and poverty eradication, the ANC government needs to make the right policy choices - something that it appears increasingly unlikely to do and incapable of achieving. The crippling public sector strike, highlighting massive discrepancies between the salary packages of those who work at the coalface of service delivery and those in the deployed bureaucracy, and increasingly nervous investors, deeply concerned over ongoing calls for nationalisation, do not inspire confidence in our future growth prospects. Our economic growth should be increasing at an accelerating pace following the crisis - but this is not showing up in the numbers, given our 4.6% growth in the first quarter.

In the lead-up to the Medium Term Budget Policy statement, due in October, the DA will be setting out the key economic policy areas that must be addressed, and the specific interventions required, to ensure sustainable growth so that our economy can meet the aspirations of all South Africans - something it is capable of achieving, given the right policy choices.