There was little recognition of the private sector as the real driver of the economy in the document released by Mr Patel last week, c (Busa) said.
It maintains there is little new in the proposals, compared to several official growth programmes launched since 1994, including AsgiSA, the accelerated and shared growth initiative of SA.
"If we have a patient who is not well we can’t keep diagnosing it without dealing with the sickness," Busa CE Jerry Vilakazi said. He was speaking at the release of Busa’s own growth plan, which includes what it describes as "tough choices" for SA.
"If talking could be factored into gross domestic product SA would be the fastest-growing economy in the world," Busa said in an outline of its priorities.
The New Growth Path aims to achieve an official goal of creating 5-million new jobs by 2020, and reducing poverty and inequality.
Busa welcomed its calls for a strong social dialogue to focus the government, trade unions and business on those goals. But Busa disagrees with many of its proposals, which it says gave too much power to the state.
"We would caution on an overemphasis on an interventionist state that would create uncertainty in the minds of investors," Mr Vilakazi said. "The role of the state is paramount in defining policy ... but it must set parameters so that investors know what they are dealing with."
Mr Vilakazi said that, as far as he knew, business and other social partners had not been consulted on the content of the document.
The deadline for responses is mid-January, which both business and trade unions think is too soon due to year-end holidays.
"There are issues which we are highlighting, if we don’t deal with them we run the risk of being circled with a policy direction which would have unintended consequences," Mr Vilakazi warned.
Spooking investors would be one unwelcome outcome. Driving skilled workers out of SA with wage caps would be another.
It was important for SA to get a "delivery" state in place before embarking too far on a "developmental" state, Busa said.
It pointed out that the growth path was silent on tax policy, which had to be addressed.
SA was in the grip of "welfare dependency" which would be a problem without a large number of taxpayers, said Raymond Parsons, Busa’s deputy CE. The group is calling for an incentive-based approach to welfare payments.
Busa welcomed the growth path’s goal of more competition in the economy, but criticised the lack of attention to "network industries" like electricity, transport and telecommunications.
"The pro-competition approach is lopsided," Busa said. It also criticised the plan’s proposals for an "incomes policy" on wages, prices and executive bonuses.
"Some people may decide that it’s not worth it, some people could go and live elsewhere," Busa’s economic policy director Simi Siwisa said. It was important to provide the incentive to encourage people to live in SA as "we are competing globally," she added.
Busa said it was concerned by the fact that "multiple state units" were creating policy frameworks which did not necessarily "align".
It also said that some of the job targets were "unrealistic". More skills and support should be pumped into education, rather than more money, Busa said.
State capacity had to be taken into account while addressing the priorities of job creation.
But it concludes that the growth path discussion document was "agenda-rich" with a wide range of proposals for "debate, controversy and negotiation".
Ms Siwisa said that Busa was taking the growth path proposals "very seriously" as they had been approved by the Cabinet.
Source: Business Day
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