Jay Naidoo says there is hope for SA

 11 May, 2016 

Jay Naidoo. File photo.
Image by: Muntu Vilakazi/City PressGallo Images

Former cabinet minister Jay Naidoo on Tuesday night threw down the gauntlet to business‚ challenging them to play their role in bettering the lives of the people.

"Business has the ability to innovate‚" said Naidoo.

He said when he was minister of communication‚ his department instructed mobile operators to build stations in the rural areas but they refused.

"They said you can't force us to go to rural areas. I said‚ well‚ you will have to because that the condition of your licence. They eventually did under duress‚" he said.

Naidoo said six months later the mobile operators reported that they had grown their subscribers and made more profit from the rural areas.

"Technology has the ability to drive up a revolution‚" he said.

Naidoo also entered the nuclear saga fray questioning why the country was relentless in its pursuit for this so-called alternative energy.

"Why are we pressing on with building new stations when we know very well that solar could be used as energy mix? Nuclear creates fewer job‚ it's capital intensive and uses old technology‚" he said.

The former minister without portfolio in the Nelson Mandela cabinet labelled the 2007 global economic crisis as "the biggest pyramid scheme".

"The sad thing is that no one ever went to jail for the collapse of that scheme. Banks and financial institutions still do things the old way and still employ the same methods‚" said the former DBSA chair. -TMG Digital/Sunday Time
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