ANN BERNSTEIN: Only business can lead SA out of the abyss
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SA has never faced as many, as intractable and as mutually reinforcing a set of crises as it does now. Everything from poverty rates and political fractures to our catastrophic fiscal and employment crises is worse than it has ever been.
We were on the road to this destination in 2019, but Covid-19 has accelerated the descent. In this complex, volatile environment, business will need to be exceptionally strategic if it is to help push SA towards decisive action for growth and jobs. Market-orientated recommendations must not be seen as one among many recovery strategies, but as the most plausible pathway to faster growth.
With corrupt factions circling the president and the populist Left mobilising hard, one can see how the most important business proposals could be lost or even how business might find itself scapegoated for SA’s manifold failures. So what should business do next?
First, it needs to communicate to the country, to the government, the cabinet and the president how very serious things are — even though it may harm the president politically.
SA faces an existential crisis. But when you listen to senior people in the ANC and cabinet, it is clear that far too many of them do not appreciate just how close the country is to irreversible economic decline. The consequences for all South Africans of the loss of jobs and income, of declining tax revenues and of the breakdown of the welfare state, need to be communicated in ways that no-one can deny or ignore.
This is not the time for business to obfuscate what it really thinks the country needs to do, and not a time to “go along to get along”. It has to find ways to communicate how bad things are for SA’s prospects and the consequences for everybody — not just business — if nothing significant changes.
Second, business has to make the case that SA cannot do more of the same. We have to rethink the attitudes and policies that have brought the country to this sorry state. None of the recovery strategies makes this point effectively. The time has come to think afresh. Tweaking old policies will not do the job, as the past two and a half years have made clear.
The most important issues that need to be rethought relate to the state, governance and the role of markets and the private sector. Our state ...
We were on the road to this destination in 2019, but Covid-19 has accelerated the descent. In this complex, volatile environment, business will need to be exceptionally strategic if it is to help push SA towards decisive action for growth and jobs. Market-orientated recommendations must not be seen as one among many recovery strategies, but as the most plausible pathway to faster growth.
With corrupt factions circling the president and the populist Left mobilising hard, one can see how the most important business proposals could be lost or even how business might find itself scapegoated for SA’s manifold failures. So what should business do next?
First, it needs to communicate to the country, to the government, the cabinet and the president how very serious things are — even though it may harm the president politically.
SA faces an existential crisis. But when you listen to senior people in the ANC and cabinet, it is clear that far too many of them do not appreciate just how close the country is to irreversible economic decline. The consequences for all South Africans of the loss of jobs and income, of declining tax revenues and of the breakdown of the welfare state, need to be communicated in ways that no-one can deny or ignore.
This is not the time for business to obfuscate what it really thinks the country needs to do, and not a time to “go along to get along”. It has to find ways to communicate how bad things are for SA’s prospects and the consequences for everybody — not just business — if nothing significant changes.
Second, business has to make the case that SA cannot do more of the same. We have to rethink the attitudes and policies that have brought the country to this sorry state. None of the recovery strategies makes this point effectively. The time has come to think afresh. Tweaking old policies will not do the job, as the past two and a half years have made clear.
The most important issues that need to be rethought relate to the state, governance and the role of markets and the private sector. Our state ...
