Piracy first, patents later

Jasson Urbach’s claim that “robust IP [intellectual property] protections will foster local innovation and attract committed investors who can drive SA’s economic growth and human development long into the future”, is not borne out by a cursory review of economic history (New patents policy the wrong cure for improving access to medicines, September 13).

In the 2004 edition of Trade Secrets: Intellectual Piracy and the Origins of American Industrial Power, Doron Ben-Atar writes about a young US that “smuggling technology from Europe and claiming the privileges of invention was quite common and most of the political and intellectual elite of the revolutionary and early national generation were … involved in technology piracy.”

The intellectual sleight of hand behind Urbach’s and his committed investors’ dogma was well explained by Friedlich List in his 1885 National System of Political Economy when he said: “It is a very common clever device that when anyone has attained the summit of greatness, he kicks away the ladder by which he has climbed up, in order to deprive others of the means of climbing up after him…. Any nation which by means of protective duties and restrictions on navigation has raised her manufacturing power and her navigation to such a degree of development that no other nation can sustain free competition with her, can do nothing wiser than to throw away these ladders of her greatness, to preach to other nations the benefits of free trade, and to declare in penitent tones that she has hitherto wandered in the paths of error, and has now for the first time succeeded in discovering the truth.”

Dr Velaphi Msimang Monument Park

Educating youth is crucial

SA is experiencing a profound youth crisis, thanks to poor education standards and dire job prospects. The reason for this is a devastating relationship between poverty, childhood deprivation and economic growth.

Statistics SA’s recent report on poverty trends reflects that 30.4-million people — more than half of us — were living in poverty in 2015. Staggeringly, poverty was highest among children aged 17 years and younger.

Combine these catastrophic figures with the profound levels of unemployment among young South Africans, and it’s clear that without urgent intervention, we are heading for disaster.

Our economy must grow at 3% on average to maintain job prospects; it is now at about 1.1%. If predictions for the rest of the year are accurate, we will be lucky to crack 1.5%.

Stakeholders at every level agree that the achievable rate of economic growth is directly linked to the skills of the population. This is where business can have the greatest impact.

In the World Economic Forum’s 2016-17 Global Competitiveness Report, SA’s primary-education system ranked 126th and the higher education and training system 134th of 138 countries, despite the state spending about R243bn on basic education in 2016-17.

Education is the single most important investment in social capital needed for all South Africans to participate in the economy. Our education crisis surely can’t just be a funding problem. Rather, a lack of leadership and management capacity is holding SA back.

At school level, IQbusiness is sharing expertise to solve everyday educational challenges through Partners for Possibility.

Education leaders can only unlock change by identifying and implementing strategic priorities and effectively managing budget and resource allocations — something we do every day as a business. Developing business-ready talent is also something we’re tackling through an ambitious training programme.

We challenge other corporates to join us.

Adam Craker

CEO: IQbusiness

Hot money not to blame

The headline to Neva Makgetla’s article (Addiction to hot money retards growth, fuels inequality, September 12) is the wrong way round. Because we have been running a large current account deficit for a long time and do not attract foreign direct investment, we are reliant on short-term foreign capital. Without it, we would have tighter monetary policy, sharp tax hikes and cuts in government spending.

Our concern should not be the short-term flows as such, but the political and economic policy factors that have created a hostile environment for investment.

Rudolf Gouws

Stellenbosch

Protector of whom?

In response to questions about her unrecorded meeting with the Presidency before the release of her Absa report, Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane said on eNCA: “Why must I not meet with the president to make sure that whatever investigation or where he is implicated or where he’s supposed to act he can’t be consulted on? No. It can’t be like that.”

Well, not only can it be like that, but it must be like that. As a Chapter Nine institution, the office of the public protector is an independent institution. This means it is independent of the government and subject only to the Constitution and law that states it must report annually to Parliament. Zuma was not implicated in the report, he is not supposed to act in his singular capacity as the president and he is not supposed to be “consulted” on the public protector’s work.

Mkhwebane said “record 53 has been filed” but admitted this “interview” was not recorded. She also admitted that she had met with the State Security Agency. Her notes of this meeting referred to discussion of the question, “How are they vulnerable?” in relation to the Reserve Bank. What on earth was she doing talking to state security at all?

The Bank says these discussions were unlawful and unfair and that her mandate is “to pursue maladministration in the functioning of organs of state”. Mkhwebane has maladministered her mandate. And lied to us.

SC Weiss Parktown North

Opportunity for reflection

The ruling of the High Court in Pietermaritzburg on the validity of the ANC KwaZulu-Natal conference in 2015, is perceived by alarmists as a crisis for the ANC. If so, it is a vaguely defined crisis. The ANC has a long history of rising to the occasion in the midst of contradictions and tensions.

For this reason, the prospect for rapprochement between complementary and contradiction is possible. This means the judgment provides an opportunity for ANC members to return to their respective branches to reflect, reconcile, and rebuild the organisation. Unity is built in branches.

Throughout the years, that unity has never been broken, despite a few splits influenced to a great extent by the devil of serving the interests of the self — hence the rise of ill-discipline from within. As we approach the elective conference, the ANC is crying out for its soul. The unity and integrity of the movement should be defended at all costs.

We must ensure that the next generation does not inherit a fractured organisation but one that enjoys legitimacy far wider than our mass base. For this goal to be realised requires radical organisational renewal from the branch level. This is critical, because it will impact on our capacity to mobilise society around the goal of a better life for all.

It is, therefore, important to close ranks and confront what may be disruptive to the unity of our movement and the ANC in particular. However, the issues we need to tackle more decisively include the cult of personality, factionalism and corruption, which remain pervasive.

Morgan Phaahla Ekurhuleni