GNU leaders meeting was 'excellent and meaningful' - Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa has described the retreat of Government of National Unity (GNU) leaders meeting as excellent and meaningful.

He said that a considerable amount of time over the last two days was spent discussing the state of the country, the state of politics and international issues.

Ramaphosa quietly called the two-day meeting held at the Cradle of Humankind, after months of unhappiness from some political leaders that they had not come together to iron out policy differences after the budget debacle and disagreements over the National Dialogue.

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The president said that the retreat attended by the ten representatives of the GNU parties and Deputy President Paul Mashatile was conducted in a congenial and pleasant atmosphere.

Corruption and crime featured prominently on the agenda, as did the pressing issue ofgrowing hunger and a stagnant economy.

But Ramaphosa said that it was not all bleak and the leaders took stock of strides made in stabilising electricity supply, improvements to the logistics sector and the work done by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which the president has described as phenomenal.

"The progress and the success that they are recording, recovering ill-gotten goods and money, so there’s progress but we want to see more progress."

He has, however, lamented the poor performance of local government.

"The situation of local government is totally unsatisfactory… the service delivery challenges that our people are going through."

Ramaphosa said that youth unemployment was discussed, including what work was being done by the Sector Education Training Authorities (SETAs), which have been the subject of recent controversy.

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