admin
South Africans may be fatigued by pledges of support to reverse SA’s nosedive into economic atrophy, but could this be the one that actually delivers?
In June, it was announced that organised business and government would partner to remove obstacles to growth and job creation, with the key areas of focus being energy, transport and logistics, and crime and corruption.
These are identified as the three primary bottlenecks to growth.
There are already a multitude of crisis and cross-departmental committees addressing these same issues, so how does this latest one fit into the picture?
Muscle
One hundred and fifteen CEOs from SA’s leading companies have pledged to partner with the government to reverse the country’s current trajectory. These CEOs command more than R11 trillion in market value, and their companies employ more than 1,2 million people, which gives the movement the appropriate heft.
The work will be directed through the government-led National Energy Crisis Committee (Necom), National Logistics Crisis Committee (NLCC), and the Joint Initiative to Fight Crime and Corruption (JICC), and overseen by a Joint Strategic Operations Committee.
This may sound like another layer of committees added on top of those that already exist, creating a bureaucratic nest of inaction. This is definitely not the case, says a spokesperson for the initiative. The aim is to streamline and coordinate action in the most effective possible way.
The first fruits of the partnership are already visible, with engineers being dispatched from the private sector to four power stations to increase the energy availability factor.
Who’s in
Among those who have signed on are Discovery CEO Adrian Gore, Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman, Remgro’s Jannie Durand, Yellowwoods chair Adrian Enthoven, Anglo American SA chair Nolitha Fakude, Sasol CEO Fleetwood Grobler, Sanlam CEO Paul Hanratty, Toyota SA CEO Andrew Kirby, Kumba Iron Ore CEO Mpumi Zikalala and former Exxaro head Mxolisi Mgojo. The project is helmed by Business Unity SA (Busa) and Business for South Africa.
What’s different about this initiative is the roughly R100 million raised by the Resource Mobilisation Fund, which is available for deployment in key areas of need, and the levels of skills available to the three critical workstreams. Explains Busa CEO Cas Coovadia: “This initiative essentially started about two months ago when President Cyril Ramaphosa signed off on a partnership structure. However, we have already established the Resource Mobilisation Fund and raised funds to put expertise into the National Energy Crisis Committee to implement the President’s Energy plan.-Moneyweb
“Relevant expertise was donated to Necom about two weeks ago. We have placed engineers at four power stations to increase capacity and the energy factor in those. We are busy bedding down the structure that was agreed and will soon have clear deliverables and outcomes, with timeframes.”
The energy workstream is sponsored by three business leaders: Enthoven, Fakude and Grobler.
Durand and Froneman are sponsoring the crime and corruption workstream.
Transport and logistics is sponsored by Kirby, Mgojo and Zikalala. Moneyweb
Online Reporter