Readers’Views

For real growth, look to small and medium businesses

The numbers are not too promising. If President Cyril Ramaphosa has reached 95% of his [five-year, R1.2trillion] investment target, and our employment rate is nearly 50%, then this investment exercise doesn’t do much to address our current socioeconomic disaster.

Either his target is too low (much like our matric pass mark), or these investments promote “jobless” growth.

He should be addressing a small/medium business conference, and committing government to removing all impediments for them to succeed.

Real growth would then take off and many more permanent jobs would be created.

Unfortunately, I think pigs will fly before that will happen. We can but dream and wish that Cyril & Co live in the same universe we do.

— Ian Ferguson, on BusinessLIVE

If Ramaphosa really wants to get the investment train properly moving, not just chugging along in fits and starts, and sometimes entirely derailed, he had better start getting rid of incompetent and arrogant ministers and officials, as well as getting rid of red tape.

There is also the small matter of the dysfunction of many strategic state-owned entities, especially in the security cluster.

If businesses cannot have their safety guaranteed, why should they take the chance here, when there are safer and greener pastures elsewhere?

— Sandra Goldberg, on BusinessLIVE

Experts needed to fix railways

Can we not bring in about 1,000 railway technicians/operators from India to run our railways properly and train some new, young and bright local South Africans, as the current lot have little idea about how a railway system actually operates.

Coal and agricultural products need completely different systems. How about proper sidings with refrigerated storage and refrigerated carriages for our citrus? Also jack up the ports where huge delays occur.

No-one at Transnet can work these things out. Let’s bring in some experts to help them as they have proven they cannot do the job.

At the same time, we can remove several thousand trucks that cause so many accidents and destroy our roads!

— Stuart Woodhead, on BusinessLIVE

Deflated numbers

News that annual consumer inflation remained unchanged at 5.7% in February refers. This is completely inconsistent with what I’m experiencing.

The price increases of food, petrol and electricity alone must have pushed this rate up several percentage points.

— Charles Parr, on BusinessLIVE