By Prof. Busisiwe Mavuso
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 to government whenever we can use our joint capabilities to improve the business environment, drive economic growth and create jobs.
We partner 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 through which 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. It was an important event in which business and government leaders came together to mark the importance of our relationship. President Cyril Ramaphosa noted the importance of the partnership to the Government of National Unity 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.
Those focus areas entail particularly those driven by Operation Vulindlela, the joint venture between the Presidency and National Treasury. The collaborative effort ensures OV 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.
The second phase has seen new targets being drawn up, such as getting the rail network to move 193 million tonnes of goods, from the current baseline of 170 million tonnes. Regarding crime and corruption, the priority will be to help ensure South Africa is removed from the FATF grey list, which has made all transactions with the rest of the world more difficult and has held back our economy. BLSA has long been supporting the National Prosecuting Authority 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. The message from them 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’ve 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.
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, dividing 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, separate from operations. This comes ahead of expected pricing from Transnet next month for access by private sector operators 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. 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.
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. We need government to continue the trajectory, making the key decisions that drive reform. Government must avoid delays and confusion, making bold and decisive reforms that move from concept to reality quickly. Through B4SA and many other ways that business partners government, we are willing and able to assist.
