The government has promised to publish a roadmap for SA’s freight logistics industry by the end of August, opening the way to faster reforms to address the crisis in rail and ports that has slashed exports and economic growth.
This was one of the outcomes of Tuesday’s meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa to take stock of the two-month-old partnership between business and the government to arrest the slide in SA’s economy.
The partners have agreed to focus on three priority areas: energy, transport and logistics, and crime and corruption.
Business leaders said on Wednesday that business was clear that specific interventions are needed in these three areas to stop the slide in the economy and provide a platform to lift the economic growth rate to 3%, though they cautioned this would not happen overnight.
In a media briefing on Wednesday, CEOs firmly rebuffed criticism that they risk being co-opted by the government or lend legitimacy to a failed ANC ahead of next year’s elections.
Standard Bank SA CEO Lungisa Fuzile said working together will not compromise the independence of business or the government, and business will continue to hold the government accountable. “I for one have no hesitation working with government because I want an SA that delivers prosperity for everyone. I am not doing it for the governing party; I am doing it for SA,” Fuzile said.
Since the partnership was agreed at a meeting between CEOs and Ramaphosa in early June, joint workstreams have been established, and business leaders said the government ministers and senior officials who joined this week’s meeting with the president offered much more input than they had at the initial meeting.
A business pledge supporting the initiative has now been signed by 125 CEOs.
‘Significant step’
A key breakthrough has been setting up a joint committee on crime and corruption. “This is a very significant step forward. For the first time government has supported the private sector working very closely at a very senior level with the security cluster, which means it will be able to do a lot more,” said Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman, who leads the crime and corruption workstream.
Business Day reported this week that the police commissioner said senior police officials have been seconded to work with business on the initiative.
Froneman said there is a judicial workstream, working closely with the National Prosecuting Authority, to provide skills and capacity, especially in data and forensics.
There is also a workstream focused on crime prevention.
In logistics, the partnership is working through the national logistics crisis committee, which Ramaphosa set up in April in response to the growing crisis on SA’s freight rail networks.
A logistics roadmap, similar to the electricity industry roadmap the government published in 2019, is critical to advance reforms outlined in the 2022 rail white paper and to ensure that these are not hijacked by Transnet, an industry source said.
The logistics roadmap will set out the end state for the industry and outline how far and how fast private participation will be introduced, as well as outlining an action plan for recovery in Transnet’s operations.
The fact that it will have the cabinet’s blessing will give it teeth, the source said.
Ramaphosa has undertaken that the private sector will be consulted on the roadmap before it is finalised. The presidency said in a statement on Tuesday that a draft roadmap will be agreed by the end of August with the objective of cabinet approval by September.
Meanwhile, business leaders are working with the government and Transnet to try to improve the performance of Transnet’s rail network in the short term as well as to drive longer structural reforms. Kumba CEO Mpumi Zikalala said progress is being made, especially on the mining corridors.
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