Business leaders beat drum for Government of National Unity

Commenting on South Africa after the May elections and with a Government of National Unity (GNU) at the helm, Ninety One CEO Hendrik du Toit told a panel discussion at the Cogence Summit in Sandton on Tuesday: “If we don’t use this opportunity now, we are going to regret it.”

Discovery chairperson Reuel Khoza agreed that the GNU was a welcome development, allowing previously polarised politicians to come together, speak softly and listen to each other.

“Now we’ll have positive synergies through the GNU — with cross-pollination of ideas. Already, the world perceives us as a cooperative political economy, as opposed to a political economy that thrives in destruction,” he said.

Eskom chairperson Mteto Nyati pointed out that diversity was not just about race.

“It’s diversity of perspectives, diversity of gender, of age. You need to bring all of that together in order to solve the complex problems that we’re facing today. The world is changing so fast, you need people that can help you to look at the same problem from different angles, and then be able to come up with solutions that talk to that problem,” he said.

Nyati said that whereas South Africa previously had people looking through the same lens at the same problem, the GNU was about people coming from different angles to address problems. “And my sense is that the solutions are going to be much more rich,” he said.

He pointed to Eskom as a key example of collaboration, noting that the current Eskom board was largely made up of people from the private sector.

“Everyone is saying it is a miracle that Eskom is sorted out. There were mechanical and people-related problems [at] Eskom. We just had to bring in some of the discipline that’s required to see things through. You come up with a plan. You make sure that you prioritise the right things, you appoint the right people, and you give them the space to go and do what they are capable of doing, and you trust that they are going to do,” he said.

“But I think it was … Ronald Reagan who said, ‘Trust but verify.’ So, you need to go and check things are being done the right way.”

Public-private sector collaboration 

Du Toit said another bonus for South Africa was a private sector with a “fair amount of capability”.

“The late Tito Mboweni was quite influential in the establishment of Operation Vulindlela and I think we should pay respect to Adrian Gore and Business for South Africa under his and Martin Kingston’s leadership,” he said. Although Operation Vulindlela is a government project, it has engaged private sector capacity.

South Africa is four months away from assuming the G20 presidency and, said Du Toit, “What is really encouraging is that the finance minister invited the financial sector to a meeting and said, ‘Guys, we’re going to work together.’ We said, ‘No, we don’t give money; we’ve given you a lot of money in taxes, we will give capacity.”

He added that the public should be better informed about how Operation Vulindlela worked behind the scenes.

“We have monthly meetings where business and government hold each other to account. I think they could be more transparent, better communicated, so that the nation knows. The nation, at the moment, is not fully informed of these discussions,” he said, adding that if they were, the collaboration could be replicated at local level. DM