Many business people were hopeful, however, that increasing demand, both from the domestic market and from CARICOM, would facilitate a rise in capacity utilization in the manufacturing sector current levels – now about 66–68 per cent. In principle, the tepid recovery, after three years of economic stagnation, should not have a major impact on employment.
This plan has received support from across the political spectrum. However, implementation has been disappointingly slow. 4 https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0302/P03022017.pdf  Page 3 of 12  The recent change in political leadership gave rise to a renewed sense of optimism around the structural transformation agenda – not least because the President was the Deputy Chair when the National Planning Commission drafted the NDP.