Business brass believes in country’s future

Amid the gloom over the question of land expropriation without compensation, there was a glimmer of hope this week as two business heavyweights expressed positive opinions about the future of South Africa.

Mark Cutifani, Anglo American’s chief executive, told a conference in Cape Town that the future is “looking a lot more positive” since Cyril Ramaphosa took over as president.

Cutifani revealed that he and other mining leaders had enjoyed a “great meeting” earlier in the week with new Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe.

Cutifani said: “We’ve continued to invest in South Africa, we believe in the future of South Africa.”

At the same conference, Goldman Sachs’ Africa director Colin Coleman said SA was in a “very good position”, although he warned plans to expropriate land without compensation were making markets nervous.

Those statements will go a long way to soothing the concerns of international investors, although the expropriation issue must still be addressed.

Cutifani and Coleman wouldn’t be saying things like that if they did not believe there was money to be made in SA, or if they believed we were on our way to becoming a failed state.

It’s a message some of the rest of us should take on board.

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