The SA economy, one of the largest in Africa but blighted by persistent power cuts, needs to be more inclusive and give much-needed support to entrepreneurs, especially those in the informal sector to address socioeconomic challenges. .
Opposition political party leaders participated in a panel discussion on Wednesday that centred on entrepreneurship and looked at what needed to be done to scale business to be high value and create huge opportunities.
The local economy is dogged by low growth, a railway logistics crisis, crumbling infrastructure, and entrenched corruption, maladministration, and fraud.
Political parties are gearing up to take part in the 2024 national and provincial elections, where the ANC’s electoral support is expected to fall below 50%, according to several polls including one by the governing party itself.
Political leaders from Rise Mzansi, ActionSA, the DA and UDM took part in the panel discussion. The EFF, Build One SA and ANC were invited but did not attend.
Rise Mzansi national chair Vuyiswa Ramokgopa said: “We describe ourselves as social democrats.”
She said SA’s socioeconomic challenges required the state to be capacitated and provide an enabling environment for businesses to function and thrive.
Ramokgopa criticised the “charlatans and kleptocrats that are in power”, saying the government has failed to restructure the economy into an inclusive one. The structure of the economy was anticompetitive.
Rise Mzansi was for the tailoring of financing programmes for different sectors of the economy: “The bulk of entrepreneurs are sitting in the informal sector. We need to be very deliberate in servicing them.”
Development finance institutions operated on the same basis as commercial banks and this was a “big frustration for entrepreneurs”. “We need to have a market economy supported by the state. We need to improve market access for entrepreneurs. We must grow the economy and we must not leave anyone behind,” Ramokgopa said.
ActionSA president Herman Mashaba, a former mayor of Johannesburg who started his cosmetics company, Black Like Me, at the age of 22, said: “We stand for business, we are unapologetic. No union will have a right to veto our policies. When you destroy businesses, you destroy the economy.”
Mashaba said that under the government of ActionSA, businesses would not be “abused by government on a daily basis. We stand for social justice”.
Mashaba said SA should not be a “dumping place of counterfeit goods and expired foods. We will stop all that nonsense”.
DA Gauteng MPL Patrick Atkinson identified fintech as areas of growth, and described the multiparty charter for SA — a coalition of opposition political parties wanting to remove the ANC from power — as an incoming government in the provinces of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The Western Cape is already under DA rule.
He said the coalition would sort out the electricity infrastructure and that it would take about R500bn to sort out the infrastructure backlogs such as roads and schools in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
Atkinson said the coalition would cut red tape, foster public-private partnerships, and embark on a business confidence-boosting exercise. The private sector needed to work with the government to sort out the social and economic challenges buffeting SA.
“We’re excited about opportunities that will be given to South Africans in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal under the multiparty charter,” said Atkinson.
The multiparty charter said it remained convinced the ANC would fall below 50% in the election in KwaZulu-Natal due partly to former president Jacob Zuma’s decision to throw his weight behind the Umkhonto weSizwe political party.
The ANC announced this week it had suspended Zuma’s membership over the matter.
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.