Government must keep momentum in partnership with business

Government must keep the momentum going in its partnership with business as the partnership between business and government makes South Africa work. Therefore, government must avoid delays and confusion and implement bold and decisive reforms that move from concept to reality quickly.

Busisiwe Mavuso, chief executive officer of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), says in her weekly newsletter South Africans know that the best things happen when we work together. “That is especially true when it comes to business and government. BLSA is an enthusiastic partner for government whenever we can use our joint capabilities to improve the business environment, drive economic growth and create jobs.”

She points out that business partners with various counterparts in the public sector, providing expertise and other resources to get things done. “One of the mechanisms we support is B4SA, a project where businesses of all stripes can partner with government to deal with some of our most pressing challenges.”

Last week B4SA marked a renewal of partnership with the new administration, beginning a second phase that has already achieved much to resolve some of the most critical constraints facing the economy.

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Government partnership with business important for GNU

Mavuso says it was an important event where business and government leaders came together to mark the importance of their relationship. President Cyril Ramaphosa noted the importance of the partnership for the government of national unity (GNU) and its potential to support renewed investor confidence.

“The partnership aims to support government to achieve its own objectives. It has three main focus areas: electricity, logistics and crime. The first phase saw some success stories emerge, from the efforts to support Eskom and reduce load shedding to programmes to restore key logistics corridors.”

These focus areas are particularly those driven by Operation Vulindlela, the joint venture between the Presidency and National Treasury. The collaborative effort ensures Operation Vulindlela can rely on a team of private sector experts to support key projects. In all such efforts, business can only offer support, but government must set the agenda, Mavuso says.

New targets were drawn up for the second phase, such as getting the rail network to move 193 million tonnes of goods from the current baseline of 170 million tonnes.

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Focus on crime and corruption in government/business partnership

For crime and corruption, the priority is to help ensure South Africa is removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, which has made all transactions with the rest of the world more difficult and has held back our economy.

Mavuso says BLSA has supported the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for a long time through a memorandum of understanding that allows the NPA to access private skills to help investigate and develop its cases. B4SA will provide further support to the NPA, while always ensuring the NPA’s independence is sacrosanct.

“These efforts support a virtuous circle of building business confidence, leading to investment which leads to growth, which leads to jobs. A government delegation of several ministers from across the GNU, led by Deputy President Paul Mashatile, was in London last week meeting several investors.

“Their message was clear: the GNU improves sentiment, but what really matters is the delivery of reform. Those investors have helped strengthen the rand and reduce bond yields as they directed increasing investment flows into the country. But for that to be sustained, initiatives like B4SA must deliver real on-the-ground improvements in how our economy operates.”

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Increased logistics targets

She says the increased logistics targets show a level of ambition to not just restore the functioning of our logistics system but to grow it. “Another milestone last week was Transnet’s division of its freight rail division into two, separating the infrastructure management function from the operations function.

“The infrastructure manager began over a year ago but has now been formally constituted as a division before expected pricing from Transnet next month for private sector operator access to the network and an invitation for expressions of interest from potential train operators.”

Transnet Freight Rail will now be one of the operators, giving some level of independence to the infrastructure manager and a level playing field for operators to access the network, Mavuso says. “This is another step forward and I hope the partnership continues to support the pace and depth of reform, ushering in a new era of strong economic growth enabling employment and government revenue.”

Mavuso says these noteworthy steps forward last week all contribute to enabling the private sector to do more to help grow the economy. “They improve our confidence that government is delivering on reforms to improve the business environment. Through B4SA and many other ways that business partners government, we are willing and able to assist.”