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Stats SA today announced that South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 1.4% in the third quarter on 2011.

President Jacob Zuma's government will no doubt attribute this to difficult economic conditions in Europe and the United States. This is not a sufficient explanation for our poor performance.

There are many other economies across the world that are managing to perform well despite the global economic climate. Consider the following developing countries, and their rates of economic growth during the third quarter of 2011:

• China – 9.1%
• India – 7.7%
• Nigeria – 7.4%
• Peru – 6.6%
• Indonesia – 6.5%
• Russia – 4.8%

We have to ask ourselves what these countries are doing right, and what we are doing wrong.

Our failure to grow at sufficiently high levels means that fewer jobs are created and fewer South Africans have opportunities to improve their lives. We must do everything we can to reverse the course of stagnation that we are currently on.

The DA’s 8% growth plan will do just that. We will draw from international success stories to implement growth strategies that have worked elsewhere here as well. We cannot afford to continue along our current low-growth path.

For every year that passes without growth-oriented reforms in our labour and employment-policies, more stagnation will follow and more South Africans will be trapped in poverty for longer. The economic outcomes that President Zuma's administration has produced thus far bears testament to this truth.