I WOULD like to concur with William Gumede in his Truth to Power column on Wednesday. The columnist said South Africa should take a leaf from the Asian model if we want to boost our economy.

Talking about turning the country into a developmental state while those in leadership positions are appointed on partisan lines instead of competence will not grow our country's economy or develop South Africa.

Though our country is rich in minerals we are unable to score extraordinary economic growth rates. This is because the planning, coordination and implementation of policies are never right owing to the appointment of incompetent and untalented partisan top managers .

Our public service is in disarray because the people who are appointed are admirers of those in power. This causes a huge setback in terms of turning things around.

Our country should be able to create industries from scratch and create employment instead of pumping enormous amounts of money into Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) companies, which have so far proven to be unable to reduce unemployment or improve housing and education.

BEE should focus on job creation, skills transfer and the manufacturing of new products that will conquer the markets instead of creating a small pool of black millionaires.

Katlego Phago, Soshanguve