The government must tackle corruption as a priority to encourage investor sentiment even as the underlying framework for doing business shows gradual signs of improvement, says Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani.
As SA’s largest mining company with R57bn of a R100bn investment programme already spent on its mines and other assets, Anglo is a major player in the domestic economy and a good bellwether for business sentiment.
Cutifani, an Australian, has gained long experience with operations and investments in SA since he joined AngloGold Ashanti as CEO in 2007 headquartered in Johannesburg before joining Anglo in 2013. It adds credibility to his views on the economic trajectory and environment of the country.
After meeting president Cyril Ramaphosa and cabinet ministers last week, Cutifani said his message to the government was to urgently tackle corruption and to speed up proposed economic changes to create an environment conducive to investment and growth.
“The president, his ministers and I had this conversation. I said we’d like everything to move quicker. However, we understand there are things that the government must do to make sure anything we do is sustainable,” Cutifani said in an interview with Business Day.
“I said to the president: if you can’t clean up corruption then nothing is sustainable. The reality is that those who are corrupt are stealing from the poor. The quicker you can deal with corruption in its broader sense, the quicker we can all get on top of corruption and the better it will be for everyone.
“That’s the only way to uplift the country. Corruption undermines the organs of state, the ability of the state to support those who need support, and it undermines the ability of businesses to build infrastructure that gets to all the people. From that point of view, it must be their priority,” he said.
Transparency International ranks SA 70 out of 180 countries for corruption.
The Zondo commission into state capture is hearing testimony from a wide range of people who were in charge of departments at a national and local level, state-owned companies, forensic investigators and those who witnessed corruption and malfeasance in the government in the past ten years or so.
The ruling ANC is grappling with the issue of high-profile corruption after its secretary-general, Ace Magashule, appeared in court on various charges including fraud, corruption and money laundering.
The Special Investigations Unit is investigating dodgy deals at state-owned power utility Eskom, and securing repayments of irregular tenders. The most recent was a court victory setting aside a R7m contract awarded by state broadcaster SABC.
Fresh corruption flared up early in 2020 as politicians and their family and friends scrambled to secure lucrative government contracts to supply protective gear to state organs combating the spread of coronavirus. There have been few high-profile convictions for corruption that had flourished in the nine years of Jacob Zuma’s presidency.
In November, when ratings agencies Moody’s and Fitch lowered SA’s sovereign ratings deeper into junk territory, Minerals Council SA CEO Roger Baxter said there appeared to be no urgency in implementing structural reforms needed to reverse the country’s economic malaise and growing unemployment.
“We are seriously concerned about the lack of urgency displayed by key parties, but especially the government. We recognise that all social partners should have a voice, but it is not the role of the government to try to achieve consensus. It is the role of the government to govern, to take the tough decisions on critical reforms, while harnessing the inputs of stakeholders, in the interests of the country as a whole,” he said.
Cutifani said while Ramaphosa and his ministers heard his plea for rapid and positive economic changes they said many aspects of these adjustments are taking time to implement.
“We can’t just lecture the government, which we all tend to do. Sometimes, I don’t think we provide good ideas on how to get there more quickly. We, as business and the mining industry, have to give practical examples and to do more ourselves. We are not doing as much as we could,” he said.
Cutifani urged the department of minerals and energy, other departments and mining companies to take advantage of the unprecedented levels of co-operation shown in tackling coronavirus and returning 450,000 miners to work as safely as possible. Other areas can be found where they could work together in a similar way.
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