The relationship between big business and politics is one of the most difficult minefields to manage — especially in SA. Business leaders have an awkward relationship with the political system. They cannot be in it — their jobs are to run businesses — but they cannot be ignorant of political developments as these inevitably influence the operating environment. It is when the political system heads to mayhem that the question of the great divide becomes a problem.
Given their deep insights into long- and short-term trends and how decisions of today influence the outcomes of tomorrow, business leaders may well be in position to offer guidance, particularly on decisions that have material impacts on the economic fortunes of a nation. But whether such guidance is warranted depends on the relationship between the politicians and business. In the December 2015 chaos of Des van Rooyen’s ill-fated appointment as finance minister, the sum of projected consequences was alarming enough to galvanise business leaders across the board to lobby politicians such as Cyril Ramaphosa to push back against the appointment.
Before then, efforts by business leaders to provide guidance to political leaders were only tolerated behind closed doors. In instances where the guidance was more public — as done by Reuel Khoza and Paul Harris — the backlash was swift, with the government wasting no time reminding them it had been elected to run the country, not business leaders.
Under the Ramaphosa presidency relations between the government and business have been facilitated through platforms that might be opaque but give latitude to both sides to deliberate on national issues and collaborate. In recent weeks, as the DA’s rejection of the budget has threatened to dismantle the government of national unity (GNU), various business leaders have taken the bold step of publicly advocating for a meeting of the minds between the ANC and the DA that will ensure the continuity of the GNU. The rationale for such a rare step seems to be rooted in anxiety about the populist drift that might emerge in a reconfigured GNU.
In 2024 the DA referred to a “doomsday coalition” it believed would emerge if the ANC went into partnership with the EFF or MK In the DA’s view, what little remained of the guardrails on our political system would be swept up in a populist agenda, dragging the ANC ever closer to the spectrum of fiscal indiscipline that had already created the crisis in public finances.
In recent weeks, as the budget impasse escalated, the DA has found itself on a tightrope wherein it correctly identified that if the state of public finances is to be turned around, far more needs to be done to find the recipe for growing the economy. To ensure that happens the DA had to find a way of moving the nucleus of economic policy-making from the ANC’s Economic Transformation Committee to a more representative platform wherein the DA might meaningfully participate.
Its trump card — support for or rejection of the budget — was the strongest lever it had to force the change. Unfortunately for it, the ANC managed to find support outside the GNU and got the fiscal framework passed. This has raised inevitable questions about whether the DA can remain in the GNU.
For the DA, the conundrum is simple. Its departure opens the door for the doomsday coalition it warned us about, and if such a coalition does what the DA said it would, it would have essentially thrown the country to the wolves. If it was right and the country’s fortunes spiral downward, explaining its actions to its supporters will be a hard task.
The sounding of alarm bells by business leaders suggests such anxieties are not just limited to the DA, and the way forward needs to be carefully considered.
• Sithole (@coruscakhaya) is an accountant, academic and activist.
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