CEOs and state smoke peace pipe
THE CEO Initiative extended an olive branch to government at the weekend and co-chaired its first working session with Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba to boost business confidence.
Despite the trust deficit between state and business created by the cabinet reshuffle, CEO Initiative chairman Jabu Mabuza said the meeting was a “significant event” at a media briefing at Treasury.
“In the aftermath of the cabinet reshuffle and the impact on our relationship, we have been urged by all CEOs that this is our country and economy and we cannot boycott efforts to grow the economy.”
It’s a change of attitude for the business organisation, who previously snubbed talks with the minister before the Investment Road Show in April, explaining that it could not continue with “business as usual” in the wake of the cabinet reshuffle and subsequent credit rating downgrades and would need a “refreshed mandate”.
While the initiative, made up of about 100 CEOs, lauded Gigaba for hiring a credible head of Treasury, the removal of the chief financial officer at Eskom and the issues at Denel, addressing anti-business rhetoric and not embarking on the nuclear programme, Mabuza said the biggest issue for the Initiative remained state capture.
He called on President Jacob Zuma to establish a commission of inquiry into state capture.
“The president can help all of us by immediately appointing this commission of inquiry to put this issue of state capture to rest.”
Mabuza also expressed support for Gigaba’s 14-point action plan released in July for being comprehensive and realistic. He added, however, that some aspects of the plan relied on other departments.
“We will continue to ask the president to get the other colleagues in the economic cluster to do the things to build confidence so people spend and invest.”
Gigaba explained that a broader meeting with the CEO Initiative would be convened by the president in due course and would provide more detail on the 14-point plan.
Among some of the issues addressed on Friday were the economy, programmes to support youth employment, the SME Fund and state-owned entities (SOEs).
“We have been having regular discussions with business since April and even prior to that about the state of the SA economy and the initiatives we need to drive employment up and re-ignite confidence in economy,” said Gigaba.
He added that business, government and civil society were working together to engage rating agencies.
In response to businesses concerns over “the governance and balance sheet challenges” of SOEs, Gigaba explained that it was important for the state to continue paying attention to governance for them to become financially sustainable and ignite confidence among investors. — BDLive