SA needs a pilot agency to drive economic leadership, says Joel Netshitenzhe

SA is lacking a "pilot agency" that should be driving economic leadership in the country, Joel Netshitenzhe, ANC national executive committee member and Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection executive director, said on Tuesday.

However, it was time for various sectors — business, workers, religious communities, youth, women and others — to work together for the common interest of society.

"The question has been asked ... what do we do in a situation in which the state is unable to give leadership," said Netshitenzhe, who was speaking at a conference of the Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals (Absip) in Sandton.

"We have a government that communicates a sense of weakness in decision [making], confusion and a debilitating tendency towards immolation."

Various sectors working in unison to pursue the common interest of society would strengthen the forces in government, which were genuinely interested in advancing the national interest, Netshitenzhe said.

"We shall also narrow the space for the scoundrels who depend on venality and state capture for their sustenance.

"In other words, the chant of yesteryear which was starting to recede in the memory today rings truer than ever before, and that chant is ‘the struggle continues’."

Netshitenzhe said the progress made since 1994 could be recounted to no end. However, if since the political transition black intellectuals and professionals had been as prolific as before in conceptualising the national objectives and acting in unity, many of the mistakes made since then would not have happened.

"Would we have had the Marikana tragedy? Would we have had the destructive effects of the current Fees Must Fall campaign? Would we have had the self-immolation of Vuwani where schools were burnt to make a point about demarcation and would we be suffering the tortuous stresses of the so-called spy tapes, Nkandla and state capture," Netshitenzhe asked.

"If we were as prolific as before, some of the mistakes which happened since 1994 wouldn’t have happened."