SA must acknowledge partnership role in Africa

‘It is naive to focus only on the bottom line’ SOUTH AFRICAN business will change its way of dealing with the rest of the continent when it has realised the full value of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) campaign, says Department of Trade and Industry director general Alistair Ruiters. Nepad is an economic recovery programme, but implementation cannot remain the sole responsibility of Africa’s political leadership in general if it is to succeed, he says. Business can no longer search for what he terms the ‘quickest return in the shortest time’, but has to realise it is part of the communities where it operates and has a responsibility to develop them. “South African business has a head start to go out and win infrastructure development contracts awarded under Nepad, but this competitiveness must be maintained,” Ruiters told delegates at the Unpacking Nepad conference held in Johannesburg recently. “This means business has to take a longer view and it is naive to focus only on the bottom line,” he said. “We need to ask ourselves, are we capitalists that ravage a continent or capitalists that nurture? “This conference will move the debate of Nepad from the halls of government. It will democratise it and make it part of ordinary people’s vocabulary. We need to ask ourselves, what is African development in the context of a world where almost everything is stacked against us?” He stressed that government and business needed to work together to achieve the campaign’s goals. Nepad’s themes are building competitive African economies, global business participation, trade and investment, agricultural and environmental affairs, infrastructure development, energy and mining, and communication technologies.