Khulekani Mathe, CEO-designate of Business Unity South Africa (Busa), says business expects the GNU to hit the ground running.
“There's no time to waste; get on with the business of governing as soon as possible. We are there to give whatever support we can as business.”
He says the need for consultation, which has been stressed by minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, cannot be an excuse for delay.
“In most areas that need urgent attention the consultation has been done, the problems are well known and the solutions have been staring us in the face for a very long time. Mountains of research have been done into understanding what needs to be done, what can be done and how it can be done. Now we must get on with it.”
There's no time for inter-party gamesmanship with an eye on the 2029 elections.
“We have pressing challenges right now. We need to get on and address these challenges immediately without being distracted by anything else. This country has faced stagnant growth for a very long time. It is a massive challenge. We can't wait another five years to address it. Every day that we waste the situation gets worse and recovery becomes harder. That's why acting with a sense of urgency is absolutely imperative.”
Party political loyalties and ideologies must be put aside, he says.
“Parties said to us as a country, 'we will act in the best interests of South Africans'. That's what we expect from them. They need to work together and get things done.”
The size of the cabinet would make this more difficult. As business they were hoping the new cabinet would be smaller and more focused than the last one, instead of larger.
“Now it boils down to whether there is a sufficient level of maturity on the part of those sitting around the table to put the country's interests ahead of party interests.
“Either they pull in different directions and frustrate each other in a way that leads to the collapse of the GNU, or they recognise the moment we're in, genuinely look for common areas of agreement and find consensus in areas where they disagree.”
It would be “naive” to expect people from parties with different ideologies to forget what they stood for before May 29, but business expects them to adopt the right mindset and work together to solve problems.
Pairing DA ministers with ANC deputies and vice versa could be good if it is intended to prevent the formation of parallel governments. If it's about “man-marking” it will be “disastrous”.
“What really matters is that they adopt the right mindset of working together so as to negate any possible man-marking scenario that on the face of it one might see.”
He says Busa will judge the cabinet as a collective, and individuals and parties in the cabinet, by whether they live up to the undertaking they made when it became clear after May 29 that there was no outright winner.
The onus will be on business and civil society to hold the GNU to account vociferously and constantly
“All of them committed to acting in the best interests of South Africa and South Africans because the message from the voters that this is what they wanted was very clear.”
If they start to forget why they got into a GNU in the first place they will be judged harshly, he says.
“If they forget what they're there for, then we as business have a duty to remind them, and will do so constantly — that they are there to address the challenges that are detrimental to business, to stability, to confidence and to economic growth.”
The onus will be on business and civil society to hold the GNU to account vociferously and constantly.
“The politicians will take chances as long as we as citizens keep quiet, so it is the duty of all of us to hold them to their commitments. We will certainly play our part as business, but everybody needs to make sure that their voice is continuously heard in terms of what our expectations of this GNU are, and tolerate nothing else.”
He stresses the need for the GNU to put ideologies aside and accelerate private sector participation.
“Before the elections we were working closely with government to address the crises in energy, transport, logistics and so on. We managed to get things going and start to see some progress because we worked together.
“The president has indicated his commitment to that spirit of partnership. It is through these partnerships with government that we will continue to play our part in making sure the right things are done.
“We hope all ministers will have a similar open-mindedness about working with the private sector so that we don't go back to the kind of animosity and hostility towards each other that contributed to these crises in the first place, so that we can work together to resolve challenges and get our economy growing again.”
One of the greatest, largely unsung, achievements of the last administration was to start addressing obstacles to growth through private sector participation. These reforms need to be accelerated, he says.
“Of course they should have happened a long time ago. Now we're sort of in referee's optional time, and you really don't want to go into penalties.”
More policy and regulatory frameworks need to be put in place by the GNU so that private sector partnerships can be rolled out more speedily and optimally, he says, also at local government level.
“The failure of local government is a huge concern for business because at the end of the day every big business is located in some municipal area.”
Businesses have offered their support but there is still no “well thought through” framework for private sector participation at this level.
“Hopefully the necessary legislative changes will be made as soon as possible so that you have a private sector participation model that can be applied at a local government level.”
The last administration demonstrably failed to prioritise law and order, and the GNU needs to do this as a matter of urgency, he says.
Busa hopes to brief the new police minister “very soon” and get his support for partnerships, which were obstructed in the past by “sensitivities in the policing area”.
“Solving crime would absolutely unleash the potential of this country's creativity and economic growth in ways that we cannot imagine.”
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