The message from the South African government at the release of its 2008 Development Indicators, was that government was “making progress, but not fast enough”, said The Presidency policy unit head Joel Netshitenzhe at the Union Buildings on Thursday.

“We are improving people’s quality of life, but inequality might be worsening,” Netshitenzhe said, adding that the government would have to focus on intensifying its current programmes, and launching new initiatives to take the country to a higher growth and development trajectory.

Improvement of the country’s increasing current account deficit, and diversification of exports beyond natural resources, as well as greater absorption of low-skilled workers, and young people into the economy remained areas of concern.

South Africa’s current account deficit widened to 7,3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007, from 6,5% of GDP in 2006. In the first quarter of this year, the gap reached a 26-year high of 9% of GDP.

Netshitenzhe affirmed that government would be able to meet the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa, or Asgisa, target of 4,5% average growth between 2005 and 2009, given that the averages in the first two to three years were higher than 5%. “For 2008 and 2009 we would need an average growth rate of about 3,5% to achieve that average growth rate of 4,5% that we set as our target.”

“However we do acknowledge that there are certain adverse developments in the global economy that impact on the higher growth rate as well labour absorption that we have had. With regard to employment, while the 2007 figures look quite good, we think that the latest numbers that will come after this publication might show a slowing down of that trend,” Netshitenzhe added.

Total employment in South Africa in 2007 increased by about 3,4% from 2006 figures. However, broad unofficial unemployment figures still remained high, at about 34,3% of the population without jobs.

In terms of poverty and inequality, the Department of Government Communications & Information Systems (GCIS) said that poverty has been reduced, especially after 2000. The income of the poorest have improved, although the richest 10% of the population had increased at a faster rate, thereby deepening inequality. More than 12-million South Africans now received social grants.

Despite recent protests by citizens over alleged lack of service delivery, the GCIS said that it continued to make “massive improvements” in terms of service delivery, and the number of subsidised houses continued to increase, as well as access to water, sanitation and electricity.

An area of development that was significantly below target, was that of land redistribution. “At the current rate, the 30% target [for land redistribution] by 2014, would not be met,” Netshitenzhe said. The government’s target for 2007, was to have redistributed some 15-million hectares of land, but in reality, a cumulative total of 2,3-million ha had been distributed since 1994.

GCIS said it was using the development indicators in the finalisation of a 15-year review of policies, which would be ready for discussion at the next Cabinet Lekgotla.