Politicians must agree quickly to protect economy

Time is running out, really fast, with many of us who still care about this beautiful country of ours holding our breath that our leaders come to a sensible agreement and form a new government of national unity – sooner rather than later.

While we know that great haste makes great waste, we are confident this is doable as we have seen the majority of political parties who won seats in the National Assembly showing willingness to get together, at the ANC’s behest, to form an inclusive government.

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But, if not agreed upon in a matter of days, we are likely to see our fragile economy slide even further and investors look elsewhere for investment opportunities.

Busi Mavuso, CEO of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) is correct: we cannot waste any more time. She says already last week’s data showed the economy shrank in the first quarter of the year by 0.1% – with the decline covering many sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing, construction and mining.

And there’s a clear indication of a lack of confidence in the outlook of our economy, as investment was also sharply negative – and private investment at the lowest rate since 2016.

This is a scenario in which we would not like to find ourselves in these already tough economic times.

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“South Africans need a government that can commit itself to delivery and get straight to work. I hope that is what we have, soon,” Mavuso said.

“To do that they must move decisively to commit to structural reforms that are crucial to get the economy moving.”

We concur, the politicians must get to work urgently. They now have an opportunity to re-establish confidence in the new government.