The business sector in South Africa 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.
Business leaders on Tuesday discussed the future of public-private partnerships at the Sunday Times's 10th annual Directors' Event, dubbed South Africa's biggest board meeting, in association with BCX.
Under the theme “Reflecting on South Africa’s Journey: 30 Years of Democracy and Beyond”, members of the business 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 the political economy, when it came to public-private partnerships, had made a drastic improvement, with more work being done in the past few years to facilitate such 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 South Africa's 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 added that it was important for the private sector, in its collaboration with the government, to only focus on a small group of interventions which would be ramped up with time. He warned that both parties should manage their expectations when it came to the timelines of when all this 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.
TimesLIVE
Business wants, and expects, more collaboration from unity government
Business leaders discuss future of public-private partnerships at Sunday Times's 10th annual Directors' Event
Image: X
The business sector in South Africa 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.
Business leaders on Tuesday discussed the future of public-private partnerships at the Sunday Times's 10th annual Directors' Event, dubbed South Africa's biggest board meeting, in association with BCX.
Under the theme “Reflecting on South Africa’s Journey: 30 Years of Democracy and Beyond”, members of the business 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 the political economy, when it came to public-private partnerships, had made a drastic improvement, with more work being done in the past few years to facilitate such 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 South Africa's 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 added that it was important for the private sector, in its collaboration with the government, to only focus on a small group of interventions which would be ramped up with time. He warned that both parties should manage their expectations when it came to the timelines of when all this 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.
TimesLIVE
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