Business and labour not invited on roadshow

IT IS always better for Team SA to present the investment case for the country before international investors than for an individual to do so alone, Business Leadership SA (BLSA) chairman Bonang Mohale says.

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba is embarking on his inaugural international roadshow without business or labour, as has come to be tradition.

It has now come to light that business and labour were not invited.

“It’s always better when you put Team SA forward, but this time it seems it just wasn’t possible. We hope the investors will understand,” Mohale said.

“I think we shouldn’t read too much into it. It hasn’t even been a month yet and Gigaba has hit the ground running.

“[The timing of] this trip did not [allow for] enough time to rebuild the trust broken down by government,” he said.

Gigaba will meet with business and labour next week when he returns to South Africa.

Gigaba will attend the IMF/World Bank spring meetings in Washington, meet investors in Boston and New York, and will try to put South Africa’s case to Moody’s Investors Service, which has the country on watch for a downgrade.

Mohale said BLSA’s “disappointment, confusion and anger” were not directed at Gigaba or Deputy Finance Minister Sfiso Buthelezi but rather at President Jacob Zuma.

“We hold the president directly responsible for the breakdown in trust,” he said.

“The economy shows green shoots of growth, we have the best-performing currency in emerging markets, [and] you [Zuma] irrationally recall national Treasury at an inopportune time.

“It doesn’t make sense. It’s clumsy and ill-timed. He ensured we got a ratings downgrade and are headed for an unavoidable recession.”

Gigaba said in response: “The issues they are raising are not personalised – they are institutional and, therefore, they can be fixed.

“At least they [business] are not saying that we have no confidence in the minister of finance.

“They are not saying they don’t want to work with government, they are saying trust [has] broken down and we need to fix [that].”

He said this wasn’t a full-blown roadshow, but there was an unnecessary expectation that business and labour would be invited.

“We are going to take part in a more extensive roadshow later; we will inform them and invite them. I’m quite pleased that various organisations have declared their intention to be part of a roadshow,” he said.

Business Unity SA CEO Tanya Cohen said: “We were not invited to participate. I’m not too sure how it will be interpreted [by investors].

“We had a constructive meeting with the minister last week. There are areas of agreement that we will work on in coming meetings.” — TMG