Business is strongly committed to the rule of law – it is critical to a business environment that supports growth. That is why we support the criminal justice system through initiatives like Business Against Crime and our memorandum of understanding with the National Prosecuting Authority that enables us to fund technical expertise to support the NPA in building its cases.

The damage done to institutions through state capture was immense and we are still rebuilding. Our weaknesses in tackling crimes like money laundering and terrorist financing have landed the country on the grey list of the international watchdog the FATF. This is bad for the country and bad for business. Business cannot be done if there are no consequences for fraud and corruption. Our wider society also suffers enormously.

So it was with immense frustration that I read the news last week of the NPA’s struggle to gain access to evidence collected during the Zondo Commission. The three-year-long Commission, at a cost of almost R1bn, delved into state capture and recommended many prosecutions over two years ago. The NPA has been attempting to take those recommendations forward and has been stymied by a lack of access to the millions of documents that the Commission collected in its investigation. The Department of Justice, under Minister Ronald Lamola, has not provided full and complete access to the database. The department has cited “administrative problems” in providing access, but this issue has now been dragging on for years. It is unacceptable. Naturally, questions are increasingly being asked whether the problem is in fact a lack of will on the side of the department and whether it is frustrating the NPA on purpose. This issue is imminently solvable – give the NPA a complete database of all documents. There must be no excuses.

The NPA is gradually making progress. Last week we also saw the appearance in court of Moroadi Cholota, the former personal assistant of former Free State premier Ace Magashule. She was successfully extradited from the United States by the NPA to face charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering. She will face trial along with several co-accused including Magashule next year regarding the Free State asbestos scandal. This is one example of the many cases the Zondo Commission explored and gathered evidence about. There are many others that could be progressing if the NPA was properly supported by other organs of the state.

 

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On the day that unemployment figures were announced last week, revealing a rate of 33.5%, the worst since Covid restrictions were in force, organised business met with President Cyril Ramaphosa to review progress in our joint initiatives through Business For South Africa. The figures obviously influenced the mood in the room and drove much discussion.

The partnership has made much progress. The electricity crisis is the clearest success point with the Energy Action Plan having driven reforms and interventions that have largely got us to the end of load shedding. The day after the meeting, amendments to the Electricity Regulation Act were signed into law by the president, marking yet another step forward in the major overhaul of the electricity system. The amended legislation enables the establishment of a competitive electricity market in which multiple suppliers can feed into the grid. It also substantially increases the penalties for anyone involved in the theft of cables who can now receive fines of up to R5m and 10 years in prison. Both changes will be important in stabilising supply.

The other area where much work is happening is logistics. On this front, progress has been good but not as speedy as in electricity. There is a good plan that has been drawn up and agreed upon, which includes interventions such as the opening of infrastructure for the private sector to invest and operate, but progress has been slow. This was noted as a concern in the meeting and all partners committed to resolving the blockages, particularly at Transnet, and accelerating progress.

It was a great meeting in which the good progress was acknowledged, with credit given to the hard work of Eskom and the business team. There was a strong commitment made to continuing that progress. The dreadful unemployment figures provided ample evidence of the urgency to moving things forward. I look forward to further engagement with our public sector counterparts to accelerate momentum.

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BLSA is a business organisation that believes in South Africa’s future and shares the values set out in the Constitution. BLSA is committed to playing its part in creating a South Africa of increasing prosperity for all by harnessing the resources and capabilities of business in partnership with government and civil society to deliver economic growth, transformation and inclusion.