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During his opening speech to parliament on 9 February 1996, President Mandela pointed to South Africa's slow economic growth, rising unemployment and persistent poverty. He then called on the public and private sectors to develop and implement a'national vision to lift us out of this quagmire'. 2 This set the scene for a year which turned out to be rich in contrasting economic visions and growth strategies. By mid-year, all the so-called'social-partners'(business, labour and the government) had put their economic policy cards on the table. In February 1996, the South African Foundation (SAF)-an organisation of top South African companies-presented'Growth for AH'(SAF, 1996) to President Mandela and distributed copies around the country. The Nedlac Labour Caucus, ie COSATU, FEDSAL and NACTU, responded a couple of months later with'Social Equity and Job Creation'(LABOUR, 1996). 3 Some of LABOUR'S implicit views on macroeconomic policy were supported in a subsequent ILO Review of the South African labour market (Standing et al, 1996). The government completed the picture in June by publishing the'Growth, Employment and Redistribution'(GEAR) macroeconomic framework (GEAR, 1996). 4 The various documents cover a broad range of policies with differing emphases on technical, economic, institutional and political arguments. All of the strategies stress the importance of productivity growth, and all see a role for some government intervention in the supply-side of the economy (such as training, the provision of economic services, etc).

It is not the aim of this article to provide a detailed description of the different proposed …