How South Africa’s crises and challenges are being faced

Business continues to pour significant resources into partnering with government to solve South Africa’s most pressing challenges.

I have in the past argued that this partnership critically depends on both sides truly committing to make it work.

After a meeting last week with President Cyril Ramaphosa and ministers from his Cabinet, I have confidence that government’s commitment to working in partnership to deal with the priority issues has escalated and started gaining momentum.

The challenges are acute and in everyone’s interest to resolve. The mining sector is now facing significant retrenchments, with some 35 000 jobs at risk.

The collapsing logistics system is one of the main drivers.

The urgency of fixing Transnet and our road networks is clear and both government and business are working hard to find solutions.

The partnership to deal with the electricity crisis has made the most progress.

The National Energy Crisis Committee is delivering on the Energy Action Plan (EAP) – a detailed assessment of the best way to resolve the electricity crisis that was agreed between business and government.

The partnership has seen the deployment of technical support teams to five power stations and working to bring Kusile’s three units back online.

It is bearing fruit – unit 3 at Kusile, which can produce 720 megawatts or close to a full stage of load shedding, returned to service two months ahead of schedule, thanks to the collaboration and interventions.

Government has expedited several pieces of legislation required to implement the EAP, particularly the establishment of an independent National Transmission Company of SA, which has now been licensed to become the grid operator able to procure energy from many sources.

Government needs business to do well, as a major employer and taxpayer, and together we can establish the conditions to enable that.

Those conditions require effective policy, public services and network industries, which are critical to every South African.

The collaboration is making tangible progress and after last week’s meeting I anticipate that we will make more progress quicker.

Business For South Africa has convened the business side of the effort and BLSA is a major contributor. We will continue working hard to build on the progress we have made.

Mavuso is CEO of Business Leadership South Africa.