Transparency and accountability is what Business Leadership SA’s (BLSA) new reform tracker will bring to the government, deputy finance minister Ashor Sarupen said at the tracker’s launch on Thursday.
“It’s important that when we think about our democracy, we conceptualise the participatory and representative democracy. It’s not just good enough to have representatives that you elect every five years and then hope for the best; [you have to] actively participate,” he said, adding that the pressure on the political system must come from “all of society”.
The BLSA Tracker is the first serious, independent effort to keep tabs on how the government has followed through on its reform promises since the term “reform” started making headlines in 2019.
The tracker is designed specifically to assess reforms that are positive for the business environment, across criminal justice, governance and economic categories, which the organisation sees as key to unlocking economic growth. The approximately 240 reforms, which are easily trackable on a website, consist of a mix of those continuing from the previous administration and from the government of national unity (GNU). So far, 11% have been fully completed.
According to Sarupen, the tracker provides the government “with a continuous opportunity to reflect on the quality of our reforms and the pace of our reforms”.
Sarupen acknowledged that the government was good at making plans but was “often criticised for producing great plans that we never deliver on”.
“I think it will be fair to say that that is a criticism that comes our way. So, this [tracker] is also to make sure that those plans that we draw up don’t gather dust.”
Sarupen recalled when late finance minister Tito Mboweni launched a paper on the need for certain reforms in 2019. While the plans were widely praised, Sarupen, a member of the DA, recalled his own criticism at the time, calling it a “wonderful plan” that was likely to “gather dust”.
“But it didn’t gather dust … and that led to the launch of Operation Vulindlela (OV) in October 2020.”
Launched as a presidency-Treasury partnership, OV set out to clear the structural roadblocks holding back growth. Phase 1 homed in on five high-impact bottlenecks — electricity, freight logistics, water, telecommunications and visas — because fixing them promised the quickest wins for investment, competitiveness and jobs.
Phase 2, unveiled this year, keeps the momentum on those fronts but adds digital transformation and spatial inequality, bringing the action list to 30. Business Day earlier reported that more than half of the phase 2 flagship structural reform programme was progressing as planned.
The BLSA tracker will therefore also help OV achieve its goals.
“Research by the Bureau of Economic Research suggests that fully implementing the original phase 1 reforms could raise SA’s potential growth rate by 1.5%,” Sarupen said, adding that the Treasury was doing its own modelling to estimate the combined effects of phases 1 and 2.
“Transparency matters. It matters a lot, particularly in the global environment where we’re seeing the erosion of democracy and governments becoming less transparent,” Sarupen said.
“It matters because it allows citizens, investors and social partners and all of society to hold us to account, and by providing an independent view of reform progress, the tracker will strengthen the culture of delivery that we need to embed into the government.”
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