Readers’ Views

Foreign direct investment and the socioeconomic context in SA

I guess any foreign direct investment (FDI) in SA went up in smoke a long time ago — the article “Commission can flip on Burger King deal, says Tembinkosi Bonakele” (Newsmaker, August 1) just seals it.

Because I mean, who really wants and needs jobs in SA when you can get a social grant instead?

Clearly, investment, economic growth and job creation are not priorities for the Competition Commission. No doubt many other businesses and investors will be taking their business elsewhere.

Teresa Settas, on businessLIVE

If FDI’s main goal is extraction of profit at the expense of sustainable transformation targets, let that FDI go.

If Emerging Capital Partners is serious about investing in SA and not merely here to extract, they will find suitable black partners to make this deal happen. If elsewhere is better, by all means go there — that is simple economics.

Skhanda MaMillion, on businessLIVE

SAA vanity project won’t fly

Flogging a dead horse, “SAA counting down to relaunch” (August 1)?

SA is not welcome in some important destination countries due to Covid restrictions. It seems quite unlikely this will change soon.

We don’t believe our own Covid data, so it’s unlikely anybody else does either, which means restrictions are likely to stay. Is that going to be helpful for international air travel?

Let it go — it’s a vanity project.

Who will meet the costs racking up before (if at all) South African Airways flies again? I assume salaries are being paid, insurance, rent, aircraft leasing and maintenance, and so on. I don’t see an investor picking up these costs for the next three or four months. Nick Miller, on businessLIVE

More than tax breaks needed

Why do people believe low corporate taxes encourage companies to invest and to grow their workforces? The primary beneficiaries of lower taxes at the corporate level are shareholders.

Companies invest when the environment is right. That means good infrastructure, language, good regulation and closeness to markets — if that means anything in the digital age. If SA wants to attract companies, get those digitally underpinned businesses to come here.

Cut out the tax breaks, except for generosity towards foundry stuff and research and development, and let’s get the show on the road.

Ditto businesses manufacturing for the greener environment — because this country sits on all the stuff you need to build for the greener age.