Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) welcomes the election of Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC president, as President of our Republic, following the resignation, albeit late, of Mr Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma.

BLSA believes the election of a new president this afternoon represents a fresh opportunity to focus on the urgent task of growing the economy and putting our people into jobs in order to address the key challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment especially among our youth.

“There is no time to celebrate,” said Bonang Mohale, BLSA’s CEO.

Instead of celebrating, BLSA is calling on the new administration to urgently focus on a few critical areas:

“Some public services are cases worse now than they were in 1994. The South African Revenue Service and the National Prosecuting Authority used to be our pride and joy, but now they are captured,” said Mohale.

“Our State-Owned Enterprises are bankrupt. We need to address the leadership, capital structure and governance issues gripping these SOEs.

“Now that we have Mr Zuma out of the way, and the terms of reference and regulations promulgated, enabling the Zondo Commission of Inquiry to be functional, we need it to be adequately resourced to begin its work of investigating state capture against key figures in the ANC’s senior leadership and in Mr Zuma’s cabinet. Technically, we have a leadership that is under prosecution, and they need to be offered an opportunity to account for their actions speedily.

“Finally, together with labour and civil society, business needs to stay engaged in economic policy making and efforts to jealously guard this democracy. We know only too well what happens when we abdicate this patriotic duty.”

BLSA stands ready to present its proposal on an emergency socio-economic recovery plan.

“In business, the incoming administration, hopefully free of dead wood, incompetence and those facing corruption allegations, will find a willing and capable partner to help pull back our country from the brink of collapse,” Mohale said.