Two Decades of Freedom: Enormous strides made but much to be done

Business Leadership South Africa has praised Goldman Sachs' Two Decades of Freedom, economic report as a ‘constructive contribution to South Africa's economic policy dialogue'.

Speaking in Johannesburg, BLSA Chairman Bobby Godsell said: "By demonstrating how post-apartheid governments wrestled the country back from the brink of bankruptcy, dismantled the race based economic exclusion of the past, and enabled the significant creation of wealth which raised South Africa's GDP from $136bn in 1994 to $380bn, the report underlines the significant achievements we have made in a relatively brief period. At the same time, the report is blunt and clear about the threats to consolidating these considerable achievements and thus provides a useful, evidence based contribution for sustaining the creation of inclusive wealth."

BLSA CEO Thero Setiloane said. "In order to preserve the substantial gains of democracy, we need to build on the things we got right, operate from an informed understanding of the challenges that we still face and cooperate through a flexible framework that pulls on the resources and skills of the country as a whole. The NDP recognizes that long-term growth and investment requires trust and cooperation between business, labour, and government, and acknowledges that levels of trust in South Africa are low. We welcome the call in this report for a "team South Africa approach," as it is only through collaboration between government, business, labour and civil society, all pushing in the same direction, that the challenges we face can be addressed."

The joint government business process to identify and resolve constraints to growth, initiated by the meeting between business leaders and President Zuma and members of his cabinet on 15th February and again on 6th August is an encouraging example that such engagements are possible.

Five working groups are making good progress on both identifying constraints and ways of addressing these in the areas of infrastructure, regulations, inclusive growth, education and skills and labour relations, all areas that the report identifies as critical. Another example which BLSA is involved in is the now operational National Education Collaboration Framework, which has also identified five areas of joint action to improve the quality of basic education.

Critical to this, as identified by the report, is the need for a new model of labour relations, one which recognizes the need for wage moderation at all levels, including some sacrifices by management, alongside increases in productivity when wages do rise.

"While the challenges that we face are significant, we as South Africans rose to much more difficult challenges to ensure a peaceful and constructive end to Apartheid. A new generation of leaders must now rise to the challenges identified in this report, and described in much greater detail in the National Development Plan, to build a better future for both current and future generations" added Mr Godsell.

Statement issued by Brunswick South Africa on behalf of BLSA, November 4 2013

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