SA’s president met with an independent group of global leaders known as ‘The Elders’, where they discussed a range of issues, from rising inflation, rising food prices, as well as unemployment.
SOUTH African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday met with an independent group of global leaders known as ‘The Elders’, where they discussed a range of issues, from rising inflation, rising food prices, as well as unemployment.
Ramaphosa told reporters in attendance that it is currently a difficult time for any leader around the world because all countries are facing complex problems and challenges, due to the after affects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to more than two million people losing their jobs in just one year.
“Any economy that loses that many jobs is facing huge challenges and the effort – to regain those jobs and grow the economy to a level where it can increase jobs again – is huge,” said Ramaphosa.
“In our own situation, we’ve also had to deal with the July unrest of last year, which led to a loss of jobs and destruction of our infrastructure … Now we are having to deal with the floods as well,” he said.
Ramaphosa added that the country will be able to navigate through this crisis and urged residents to remember that “we are not the only ones in the world that are going through challenges, such as rising food prices, rising inflation and a whole range of other problems, such as unemployment”.
Furthermore, the president thanked ‘The Elders’ in attendance, as the last time they met was in 2019. The group exchanged views on how South Africa has progressed’ in particular, on its sustainable development goals, and reconstruction and recovery process in the work of Covid-19.
“We’ve been able to report back to them on the progress that we are making with regards to introducing a national health insurance and access to quality and affordable health care, regardless of anybody’s ability to pay,” said Ramaphosa.
He added that he’s also also been able to report on the steps taken with regards to climate change, which now includes the establishment of a presidential climate commission, and informed them of its ambitious target of emissions reduction.
IOL
