Business wants more collaboration from the unity government

Business expects accelerated collaboration between the government and the private sector in the next five years, as the country enters a period of rule by a government of national unity (GNU).

Business leaders on Tuesday discussed the future of public-private partnerships at the Sunday Times’ 10th annual Directors’ Event, dubbed SA’s biggest board meeting, in association with BCX.

Under the theme “Reflecting on SA’s Journey: 30 Years of Democracy and Beyond”, members of the corporate sector reflected on the three decades of democracy and what action must be taken by the public and private sectors in future.

Looking back at the past five years, Krutham MD Peter Attard Montalto said a lot of work had been done to improve public-private partnerships.

“We have seen this particularly with the work of the presidency on things like the electricity regulation amendment bill, water and Operation Vulindlela,” said Attard Montalto.

Operation Vulindlela is a joint initiative of the presidency and the National Treasury to accelerate the implementation of structural reforms and support economic recovery.

Rothschild & Co SA executive chair Martin Kingston said the country’s sixth administration had established a working relationship with the private sector. He said regardless of which political parties formed the current government, they needed to use a similar approach.

“The government needs to work with us collaboratively and co-operatively and the focus needs to be on key interventions where we can implement structural reform.”

Kingston said it was important for the private sector when it collaborated with the government to focus on only a small group of interventions that would be ramped up with time. He warned that both parties should manage their expectations when goals could be achieved.

“We know that the country as a whole is impatient. We need to build and, in some cases, rebuild levels of confidence that have been eroded over the past several years, and the way of doing it is not by having unrealistic expectations that we are going to cover the entire blackboard with initiatives. We need to be very selective,” he said.

Black Business Council SA CEO Kganki Matabane said the formation of the GNU showed that different political parties could work together.

“We are reaching a new normal and in that new normal we need to work together. There is no going back,” said Matabane.

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