Not for the first time, business leaders got a tongue lashing over their restrained response to the government’s inexorable march to a populist drum as it leads the country towards a utopia of equally distributed wealth, effort and naptime. Who wants that?
Not Ann Bernstein of the Centre for Development and Enterprise, who writes in Business Day that the "path of least resistance" taken by business means it "has failed to make the case — compellingly, publicly — for a much higher prioritisation of economic growth as a goal of policy".
Well, yes and no. Yes, the economy is in such deep low-growth doo-doo that Bernstein’s cheerleading for more voice from business against the government’s lurch to the left and concomitant policy follies seems justified.
But no, no matter how loudly business bleats, it will not be heard. The ANC government is deaf to all but its own purpose to cling to power at all costs, including by putting the party before the people.
But no, no matter how loudly business bleats, it will not be heard. The ANC government is deaf to all but its own purpose to cling to power at all costs, including by putting the party before the people.
Two instances illustrating the efficacy of talking to the government about policy matters come to mind. The most recent involves human rights lawyer Richard Spoor and mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe. Spoor tried to help community members have their say at a public consultation over mining at Xolobeni in the Eastern Cape. Mantashe would not let him. Spoor was arrested.
The merits of the case against Spoor cannot be debated here, nor the merits of strip-mining certain fishing grounds, but the fact is there was no proper consultation between the government and the affected community, just shouting and violence.
The earlier instance illustrating the futility of talking to the government is the hearings by the constitutional review committee into land expropriation without compensation. The committee asked ordinary people whether the constitution should be changed to accommodate land expropriation. The overwhelming response was that people wanted land. They may also have said that what they wanted was a life, a place to live, an education, health care, a job.
What the ANC heard was: "Yes, change the constitution."
The key lesson of the past two decades is not, as Bernstein puts it, that failure to remain fully and publicly engaged with the government usually ends badly. The lesson is that the ANC cannot abide any deviation from its statist ideology for it is nothing without it.
The fact is, business has not withdrawn to its "default public silence or going-along-to-get-along position". Instead, it has been getting along with what it is supposed to do, doing business, and this under increasingly trying conditions.
A Business Leadership SA (BLSA) survey shows that its members’ direct output was R1.9-trillion in 2016, or 1.2 times the total budgeted expenditure by government in 2016. It found that business employs 6.9 times the number of public sector employees. That is despite the bloated public sector accounting for about half of all economic activity. Yet, without accounting for a knock-on effect, BLSA members contributed about 34% of GDP, compared with the government’s 11.7%.
Even backed up by these numbers and more, talking to the government about facilitating economic growth has amounted to nothing useful. ANC heavies will bluster, but even if they come up with anything coherent, it no longer matters. The state is broke. The VAT card has been played. Increased taxation and greater government spending have long passed the point of diminishing returns.
Not all talking is useless, but it does mean there is no profit in trying to persuade the ANC to align its interests with that of the country. There is no arguing against belief, which is all the ANC has, so it must force the country to bend to its will. In this zero-sum game, the ANC’s gains are the nation’s loss.
Bernstein might consider urging business to keep talking, but to talk to the people instead. Long after the ANC has come apart, business will still be doing business and people will still be doing business with each other.
• Blom is a flyfisher who likes to write.
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