SA business lambasted for silence on country’s future

A usually calm and collected Trevor Manuel, respected finance minister for the past 13 years and now heading the new National Planning Commission, was in reverse mode last week, lambasting the South African business sector as ‘cowards’. The outburst from a visibly angry Manuel occurred on the penultimate day of the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, during a panel discussion on South Africa’s future. He lambasted business for “being quiet” over important socio-economic questions that touch the heart of South Africa and asserted that the business community did not participate in dialogue over the challenge to eradicate poverty, some only prepared to criticise rather than lay issues on the table. Manuel suggested confidence between business and government was questionable and unhealthy, but declined to expound on pressure between the business community and himself. Manuel was participating in a discussion with Sasol CEO, Pat Davies, AfriForum CEO, Kallie Kriel and ANC treasurer-general, Matthew Phosa, the latter more convivial as he called on business to enter into a ‘partnership’ with government and proposing the private sector relegate expertise to boost the low comparative levels in the state sector. Kriel touched a nerve by accusing the ANC of appointing ‘political loyalists’ into positions for which they have not the necessary acumen. Winning a round of applause in the presence of South African trade and industries minister, Rob Davies, was a call by Chris Kirubi, chairman of Kenya’s Haco Industries, for African countries to “do what we ask others to do”. He argued that African countries needed to open their borders and practise what they preached, in pursuit of a free and unprotected trade policy.