Talk of nationalisation scares off business

Increased costs of energy, transportation and labour as well as the continued mention of nationalisation by political leaders are challenges that SA business faces daily. “The City of Johannesburg in the past week increased electricity tariffs for business by more than 30%. While we have been assured there will be no load shedding, there are no guarantees,” Neren Rau, CEO of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) said recently. He said other increased costs such as fuel and toll roads were also taking their toll on business as is the increased cost of labour. “Then we are also faced with issues around the lack of skills and job creation.” But, of more concern said Rau, was the continued talk of nationalisation by political leaders. “It is scaring business away and that is no exaggeration. As Sacci we meet on a regular basis with the diplomatic corps and one of their major concerns is the ongoing reference to nationalisation. We need to stop these people referring to it all the time as it is hurting business. We as South Africa need to up our game considerably because if we don’t we will find ourselves in major trouble.” He said in 2008/2009, when the rest of the world was retrenching people in the midst of the economic crisis, South Africa was paying out increases in some industries of 12%. “Our economy cannot sustain this, especially if one takes into consideration that at the same time we were showing only 2.7% labour productivity.”