The ANC national executive committee (NEC) this weekend committed to back and 'popularise' the elements of government's Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (Asgi-SA).

In a press statement yesterday, the committee said that it had held in-depth discussion around the task of ensuring accelerated economic growth and development and had, as a result, endorsed the intention and scope of the Asgi-SA to identify and act on those areas of intervention which are most likely to contribute to these goals.

Asgi-SA, which is being overseen and championed by deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, is aimed at ensuring that South Africa's economy rises to at least 4,5% in the next five years (2005 to 2010) and about six percent between 2010 and 2014.

Central to it is the government's commitment to reduce unemployment by 50 percent in the second decade of freedom.

The initiative identifies the country's key economic constraints as being: the volatility of the currency, infrastructure bottlenecks, the shortage of suitable skills, apparent shortages in investment opportunities, the spatial legacy of apartheid, which contribute to higher labour costs and infrastructure delivery, poor-quality governance and service delivery, and high administered and basic-material process prices on the back of ineffective regulation or a lack of competition.

The committee said in a statement that the lekgotla welcomed the work already done by government to develop the initiative, and the steps taken to solicit contributions from various sectors.

The NEC highlighted the importance of ensuring broad social mobilisation around this initiative, to ensure that all sectors of society are able to play an active role in ensuring the success of this critical effort.

However, the statement added that the committee had decided that support for Asgi-SA should not be separated from the broader task of social mobilisation.

The ANC would, therefore, as part of its work to deepen popular participation, popularise the elements of the initiative among the people and mobilise communities to participate actively in its implementation, the statement said.

“South Africa has reached a point in its political, social and economic development where it is presented with unprecedented opportunities to decisively tackle the challenges of poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment.

“The ANC calls on all sectors and all South Africans to be actively involved in this task,” it said.