Thus ended a demand that since 1955 was believed to be necessary to achieve redistribution of wealth and to enable the state to meet the basic needs of people. Caught in the clutches of these constraints, the government, even within the framework of strategic partnerships with civil society, will find it impossible to satisfy the basic needs of millions who suffer from grinding poverty and joblessness and whose fate is likely to worsen. Appropriate economic policies lie at the heart of fundamental and successful social transformation. That lesson has been bitterly learned in Africa. It is an equally hard and bitter fact that the policies favoured by the World Bank and the IMF have worsened the situation in Africa.
Gear is that trap.
The National Institute for Economic Policy has conclusively shown that since 1996, Gear has failed in every major respect. They appeal for the courage to admit that Gear has failed and that we need a different macroeconomic framework which can meet our huge needs. In fact, the closure of the RDP office in 1995 was a deliberate move to make way for the Gear strategy in 1996. Even the parliamentary portfolio committee of the RDP, the last remaining structure, was abolished recently. The ANC has never provided satisfactory answers to these backtracking developments.