(Bloomberg) -- To a steady drumbeat of criticism over the South African government’s slow pace in fixing the economy, President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken a new tack: a weekly letter to the nation explaining what is being done.

Ramaphosa’s inaugural letter, accompanied by a jovial picture of the president at his desk, is searingly honest when it comes to his assessment of the economy, which has been run by his African National Congress since the end of apartheid in 1994.

“After a decade of low growth and deepening poverty, people are looking for signs of progress,” Ramaphosa writes. “These concerns are real. This year, the economy will record growth that is lower than expected (and much lower than what we need). Government finances are stretched about as far as they can go, and several industries are looking at retrenching workers.”

The achievements that Ramaphosa does trumpet -- a set of regulations governing the key mining industry and an agreement to go ahead with a spectrum sale that’s been delayed for years -- are neither recent announcements nor related to the state companies, such as Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., that are draining the life out of the economy.

While he speaks of a “clear strategy to place Eskom on a sustainable path to recovery,” there’s been little progress since he announced plans to revive the utility in February.

Still, in a line that may alarm his labor union allies, he says an economic strategy will draw from contributions made by South Africans after the Treasury put out a discussion paper that called for liberalizing the economy and suggested selling some state assets.

One of the members of an economic advisory council Ramaphosa appointed on Sept. 27, Wandile Sihlobo of the Agricultural Business Chamber, on Monday said what’s needed now is implementation, not new plans.

Ramaphosa is definitely right about one thing.

“Much of the confidence that the country had 20 months ago has dissipated,” he writes.

To contact the reporter on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: John McCorry at jmccorry@bloomberg.net, Karl Maier, Alastair Reed

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