Treasury’s Guma leaves, reform unit to remain priority

South Africa’s National Treasury said its “pool of skilled and competent officials” is sufficient to ensure that the work of the unit responsible for economic-growth enhancing structural reforms won’t be affected by the exit of a senior official.

Nomvuyo Guma, the co-head of the unit known as Operation Vulindlela and the chief director for microeconomic policy at the Treasury, is due to leave the Pretoria-based organisation on Friday, it said. The reform program was initiated in 2020 to remove blockages to investment and is run together with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office.

“Operation Vulindlela remains a key priority area for the Minister of Finance and the National Treasury leadership, the Treasury said in a response to questions. “This work will continue” and is assured of the required support, it said.

Ramaphosa established the unit, the name of which means ‘clear the path’ in the isiZulu language, to help rebuild an economy devastated by the coronavirus pandemic and a near-decade of state graft and erratic policy making. Economic expansion has averaged less than 1% over the past decade, below the level needed to keep up with population growth and create jobs in a country where a third of the workforce is unemployed.

Its successes include boosting investment in electricity generation and drawing up plans, that are now being implemented, to allow more private participation in the country’s freight-rail network and reform its byzantine work permit regime.

Aalia Cassim, the Treasury’s acting chief director for microeconomic policy, and its Operation Vulindlela team have been involved with the program since its establishment and will continue to do so, the Treasury said.

Operation Vulindlela has already unlocked R500-billion in investment, Guma said earlier this year. If the reforms implemented under the program take hold, economic growth may accelerate to 3.5% by 2029, according to the Stellenbosch, South Africa-based Bureau for Economic Research.