President Cyril Ramaphosa has teamed up with executives from the country’s largest companies to form “crisis committees” to address power shortages, inefficient ports and rampant crime, a huge involvement of the private sector that illustrates the weakness of the state.
Ramaphosa said the partnership, formalised at a closed meeting on Tuesday, would build on the success of previous collaborations such as the Covid-19 response, where the state and industry worked in unison to implement a nationwide vaccine rollout.
“This initiative will make a real and marked difference in rebuilding our economy and setting it on a path of sustained inclusive growth,” he said.
The collaboration was driven by a shared determination to overcome the severe challenges SA faced, he added.
The initiative is a huge mobilisation of the private sector that shines a harsh spotlight on the capacity of the state to create investor-friendly conditions for business, which is losing patience with Ramaphosa who cruised to election victory in 2019 on promises to revive the economy.
Support
“We are not trying micromanage or take over the role of the state, but support the state,” Business for SA chair Martin Kingston said.
Business has put forward the names of Sasol boss Fleetwood Grobler, Sanlam CEO Paul Hanratty, Sibanye’s Neal Froneman, Anglo American chair Nolitha Fakude and former Exxaro boss Mxolisi Mgojo to form part of the work streams to address record daily load-shedding, inefficient ports and the crime.
Other high-profile business leaders in the work streams are Toyota CEO Andrew Kirby and Remgro CEO Jannie Durand.
Kingston said operational, oversight and technical expertise already had or would soon be sent to power stations to improve operational efficiency. The teams are at Matla, Kriel Majuba and Kendal power stations, which are among the worst performing in terms of output. “If successful we could have an end to load-shedding by the end of 2024,” Kingston said.
On SA’s ports, Kingston said an immediate priority was to send intervention teams to bulk rail corridors and to upgrade equipment for Transnet, which was buckling under a shortage of locomotives, poor maintenance, a lack of spare parts, copper cable theft and vandalism.
Improving efficiency at SA’s ports was a “low-hanging fruit” that would be prioritised.
On crime, one of the biggest political headaches for Ramaphosa, Business Unity SA CEO Cas Coovadia said a meeting with the SA Police Service and the National Prosecuting Authority would be held to discuss resources needed to “fast track” cases through the justice system. “Business do feel that they have been left on their own for some time now. This is us doing what we can,” he said.
Coovadia added that the president had made it clear that they had to meet every six weeks and report on their progress. “What we are offering is private sector participation within the regulations. We have no other agenda but to get SA working,” he said.
The announcement of the initiative comes on the same day as data showed that sentiment in corporate boardrooms continued to be sour. Business confidence fell for the fifth straight month and to its lowest level since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest Rand Merchant Bank and Bureau for Economic Research business confidence index.
Respondents in various sectors said load-shedding was hurting production capacity, pushing up costs and hurting profitability, while any extra money was being spent on mitigating the effects of rolling blackouts, such as installing solar power.
Despite a promise to reinvigorate the economy when Ramaphosa took the helm in 2019, he has presided over one that is barely growing, hobbled by record load-shedding and floundering Transnet.
Some business leaders such as MTN CEO Ralph Mupita and Daniel Mminele, Nedbank’s chair-in-waiting, have stopped short of calling for Ramaphosa to resign, saying SA risked spiralling into a failed state unless it addresses many of the challenges it faces.
Less than two months ago, Trevor Manuel, chair of Old Mutual, issued a scathing criticism of SA political leadership, saying there was no doubt that SA’s corruption, crime and lawlessness had worsened because of weak leadership and lack of political will.
Update: June 7 2023
This article has been updated with new information.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.