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Business Times reports that an ANC document on economic reconstruction proposes the use of private pension savings and direct financial interventions by the Public Investment Corp (PIC) and the Reserve Bank to "fund long-term infrastructure and capital projects" to help revive the economy after the Covid-19 crisis.
It also calls for more state intervention across all sectors, including speeding up the creation of a state-owned bank, establishing a state-owned pharmaceutical company to help decrease the price of medicines, and more interventions in mining, manufacturing, energy and other sectors. The document proposes amending regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act "to increase access [to] the savings of South Africans to fund long-term infrastructure capital projects managed by development finance institutions (DFIs)". It calls for a "necessary regulatory mechanism to ensure increased pension fund investments directly into projects such as real assets, which can unlock capital that is currently not finding its way into [these] projects". But, Enoch Godongwana, chair of the ANC's economic transformation committee, said this was not an attempt to introduce prescribed assets via the back door. He pointed out that regulation 28 prescribed where pension funds should invest, which was the stock exchange and bonds, and loosening this regulation would allow fund trustees to make a decision to direct their funds to more developmental projects.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Caiphus Kgosana and Sibongakonke Shoba at BusinessLive
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