Ramaphosa: we will help businesses
• President calls on leaders to join investment roadshows overseas to promote the country
President Cyril Ramaphosa, the premiers of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng and several cabinet ministers met 90 CEOs and business and industry leaders on Tuesday, promising to help businesses rebuild and calling on them to join “roadshows” overseas to promote the country. Ramaphosa said “an extensive social and economic relief package to support poor households and provide assistance to affected businesses and employees” will be announced in the next few days.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, the premiers of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng and several cabinet ministers met 90 CEOs and business and industry leaders on Tuesday, promised to help businesses rebuild and called on them to join investment roadshows overseas to promote the country.
It is expected that the violence and looting of last week will have a lasting effect on SA’s attractiveness as an investment destination.
Attracting investment is one of the most important aims of Ramaphosa’s presidency and critical to economic growth and employment.
Ramaphosa told business leaders that “an extensive social and economic relief package to support poor households and provide assistance to affected businesses and employees” will be announced in the next few days. The government will prioritise township and informal businesses, he said. Among other things, these measures will provide immediate assistance to poor households affected by the pandemic and the recent violence; help businesses to rebuild in the aftermath of looting and destruction of property; support sectors that are affected by restrictions on economic activity; and, contribute to the longer-term goal of increasing growth, boosting employment and eradicating poverty.
“This package will include both the extension and repurposing of some of the Covid-19 relief measures and specific relief for sectors affected by the violence like retail and property. The measures should support the work under way to reopen stores, find alternative retail sites and rehabilitate shopping centres and malls,” he said.
Ramaphosa said that the events of the past 10 days “had provided the starkest reminder of what is at stake. It has exposed several of the social and economic fault lines in our society and underlined the urgent need to decisively address poverty, inequality and unemployment.
“Now, more than ever, we need united action across the economy and society to drive investment and inclusive growth. More than that, we need to ensure that our recovery plan accelerates the restructuring and transformation of our economy in a way that creates opportunities for the millions of unemployed South Africans,” he said.
“We need to work jointly — as government, business and labour — to reassure investors and to continue to promote the diverse investment opportunities that exist in our country.
“To this end, we should consider undertaking joint ‘roadshows’ to engage with investors in key centres to convey a common message,” the president said.
In his opening remarks Ramaphosa again emphasised that the actions were those of a failed insurrection. It is important to characterise this correctly, he said, so that the causes and not just the symptoms could be dealt with.
“As indicated in my address to the nation last Friday, the evidence that we have indicates that the events last week were part of a deliberate, co-ordinated and well-planned attack on our democracy, the rule of law and our constitution.
“The actions were intended to cripple the economy, cause social instability and severely weaken — or even dislodge — the democratic state,” he said.
The government had not been prepared for violence on this scale and the state had been severely weakened during the era of state capture but was already taking corrective action, he said. This includes “enhanced intelligence gathering and analysis from the ground” to support the security cluster. The government needs to take every available step to ensure the return of ports and rail lines to full operation, restore manufacturing capacity of vital goods, put in place contingency measures where facilities have been badly damaged or stocks looted or destroyed and ensure that cash can be securely transported and is available in sufficient quantities to consumers and businesses throughout the two provinces, he said.