President Cyril Ramaphosa has a bit of a reputation for telling people what they want to hear. And when he took a gratuitous potshot at business at the weekend, he clearly was speaking to his ANC constituency. But the president can’t have it both ways.
He knows full well just how much he depends on business to help him fix SA’s economy. The partnership he has forged with big business to tackle the energy, logistics and crime and corruption crises holding back economic growth has been one of the signature initiatives of his presidency, one which has started gradually to reverse the economy’s long decline.
Yet, he took the opportunity of an ANC event in Soweto on Sunday to push back against the concerns about the government of national unity (GNU) that business leaders recently expressed in letters to the ANC and the DA.
He told them in effect to stay in their lane, saying: “Business is not elected, people who are in parliament are the ones who have been elected to represent the views of everyone including the views of business people in the country.” Though business and government co-operated to take the country forward, they could never be allowed to dictate to one another. “We are only dictated to by the people of SA. Finish and klaar,” said the president, with a somewhat hostile tone.
There’s long been a deep-seated hostility to business within the ANC. Far from being a priority stakeholder because it is at the core of investment, growth and job creation, business is often seen simply as a juicy pot to be raided for various “developmental” goodies and regulated to the max. That’s weighed on SA’s ability to pursue the kind of market-friendly, growth-friendly policies that would have delivered better lives for its people.
Of course, business leaders are unelected and should not be venturing into the realm of party politics. Nor did they in the letter, which business has emphasised supported no particular political party. But it did call for the GNU to be maintained in the interests of SA’s stability. Political stability is a necessary condition for business confidence and investment. Business is within its rights to call for this, as well as to urge the continuation of a reform-minded government that can raise SA’s economic growth rate.
Under the umbrella of Business for SA, the business community has invested time, money and expertise in helping the government to address the economic crisis. Along with mobilising more than R400m to fund experts to assist the government in energy and logistics has been the investment of huge amounts of valuable executive and professional time over the past couple of years. Without that support, it’s doubtful Ramaphosa could have got the lights back on, nor paved the way to the rally in investor sentiment that followed the formation of the GNU.
Business’s partnership with the government is partly about self-interest: it has a major interest in ensuring the economy thrives so that business can do business and make good returns. But it’s hard to persuade those who take time out from running their businesses to work with the government to keep doing so if they face such unhelpful responses from the president.
In this time of global crisis, he must work particularly hard to keep business and the GNU on side. The economy needs that.
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.