South Africa needs political leaders from business

It’s always refreshing to see new faces in politics, provided they carry no baggage and are not in it for themselves.

With next year’s general elections looming, we were always going to see new names enter the political fray.

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We’ve said many times before that South Africa doesn’t need more politicians, but rather level-headed business people that have the best interests of our country at heart.

We’ve seen many new political parties formed of late, but one that is making some waves is the announcement that anti-apartheid activist and businessman Roger Jardine will head the Change Starts Now party.

He is open to work with the Multi-Party Charter of the Democratic Alliance, Inkatha Freedom Party, Freedom Front Plus, ActionSA, Action Christian Democratic Party, Spectrum National Party, Independent SA National Civic Organisation and the United Independent Movement – although it is still early days.

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Jardine, the former chair of FirstRand, told Daily Maverick: “We have to fix the balance sheets of SA Inc. A lot of private capital must be leveraged.”

We need solid leaders, who in turn, come up with strong solutions. Having more business people involved in politics can only aid our cause.