BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Change – through the ballot and not the bullet
By Kim Kemp
Officially junk status, South Africa sits on the precipice of an economic abys, while Webster Mfebe optimistically points out our advantages.
South Africa has seen it all. We have seen the political manoeuvring and corruption within the private and public sectors; we have witnessed up close the harsh Competition Commission’ s verdict delivered to the major construction companies guilty of colluding during the construction of World Cup stadia. We have seen our‘ leaders’ squirm and wriggle off legal hooks, adroitly countering accusations of graft and corruption. While we have seen it all, so has the international arena, and now, South Africa has officially slid to the bottom of the economic scale with S & P rating agency downgrading South Africa’ s local currency debt to‘ junk’ status. Webster Mfebe, CEO of SAFCEC, is adamant that South Africans have“ an obligation to draw attention to the issues we have, and making the leadership accountable,” he says.
“ I think that South Africa is a great country and I think it has great people, intellectual capacity, and resources to make it work. How we harness that intellectual capacity is vital; we need to make South Africa an inclusive society as defined by the Constitution. We need to promote and entrench a culture of human rights. It is the responsibility of every citizen in both the private and public sectors to realise this,” he adds with fervour. He describes three important values around which he focuses his leadership role, namely humanity, harmony, and democracy.“ The value of humanity seeks to promote the advancement of the Bill of Rights within the corporate environment and within the private sector, and also
36- CEC February 2018 promote and entrench the values of Ubuntu:‘ You are because I am, we are because you are.’ This fundamental influence can make us pull together in one direction— because we rely on each other’ s strengths and uplift where we see each other’ s weaknesses.” Mfebe continues:“ The intention of the Constitution is that whatever is done is not done arbitrarily. That is why I frown upon slogans like:‘ White monopoly capital’. To me, it seeks to undo the good work and foundation that was laid by Nelson Mandela and which is dictated to by the preamble of the South African Constitution, that‘ South Africa belongs to all who live in it’. Notwithstanding the fact that the Constitution says further:‘ there should be legislative measures to address the imbalances of the past’.“ However, we cannot begin to define a certain section of the population as enemies. I liken that to the apartheid era of‘ Die swart gevaar’— and now we have a new‘ Wit gevaar’. When leadership fails to convince the citizenry of what it has done or where it has taken the country, the easiest thing to do is to play on racial emotions. It is absolutely wrong— it is not the vision of OR Tambo and of all the leaders, the forebears of the ANC, and all others who fought to liberate this country so that we have an inclusive society, which is united, non-racial, non-sexist, and which is democratic and prosperous. That is the kind of society to which we should all be aspiring.” This observation is against a backdrop of diminished standing within the African continent. It is no small secret that South Africa is no longer the powerhouse of
Africa. It has SOEs that are bankrupt, with corruption and graft reported on an almost daily basis. Not only is there a funding issue for projects, come the 2017 / 18 fiscal year, the budget deficit estimate widened to 4.3 % of GDP from 3.1 % previously, as economic growth slowed and revenue collection fell.
Renewing the powerhouse of Africa
“ In pursuit of the objective of a prosperous society, obviously the private sector should spearhead job creation,” Mfebe states.“ No government creates jobs; it should create a conducive environment in which it can happen. I believe that South Africa still has an opportunity to become the powerhouse of Africa. If you look at the percentage of all foreign direct investment flows into Africa, in 2016, South Africa gained 20.6 %, which is an increase of 6.9 % up from 2015. This means that the country has become the preferred destination for attracting foreign direct investment in Africa, and it is in the top 25 global destinations for investment.
“ We have a highly diversified economy, notwithstanding the fact that we are still not doing enough in terms of processing the primary products. If you look at Africa, 50 % of local primary products leave its shores unprocessed. We need to build the infrastructure to deal with beneficiation in South Africa. Also, we are in a pole position because comparatively, we have an installed electricity generation capacity of 45.4 %. If you consider by comparison, Nigeria has an installed generation capacity of 7.4 %, six times less than ours. Electricity powers industry and the economy and