SA government should do more to promote businesses

mentioned in the trials and tribulations of South African business on the continent. No business ever mentions intervention of the government on their behalf.

The US, France, China, UK all make use of the same age-old formula. Diplomacy paves the way by smoothing over the political resistance, which then clears the way for the establishment of long-lasting business relations on the continent.

These governments then also keep an eye on how their businesses are faring, intervening rapidly when it appears that things might go wrong. Can South African business claim this kind of intervention? The answer appears to be no.

Political pitfalls

What happened to MTN in Nigeria was as a direct result of MTN not avoiding the political pitfalls that are so acute in Africa. It is then also inevitable to conclude that Dirco was nowhere in sight when things started going wrong.

One day you do business with this person, the next day there are elections and the whole game changes, and everybody is surprised as to how can something like this happen as all the Ts were crossed and the Is dotted. Business in Africa is not a statistical effort, nor a legal effort. It is a deliberate relational effort.

In May our foreign minister in her budget speech claimed that Dirco was driving efforts on the continent. How is this possible when the minister at the same time proposes that the budget be sliced by R153 million?

If South Africa is dependent on its business relationships then slicing Dirco is not an indication of seriousness, or maybe it is an indication that business does not need Dirco to achieve growth.

To make South African business in Africa thrive we need to invest more – more in our diplomats and more in our representation abroad, especially in Africa. We need to narrow the gap between the government and private business.