ANC has a heart-to-heart with business

Cape Town - The ANC is in talks with captains of the business industry as the country faces political and economic turbulence.

South Africa is in a technical recession, its unemployment rate is on a 14-year high, it has suffered junk status gradings by three ratings agencies and on top of that, it faces potential interest rate and electricity price hikes.

This spell of gloomy news also follows growing tension between government and business after respected former finance minister Pravin Gordhan was given the marching orders by President Jacob Zuma.

On Monday the Banking Association South Africa (BASA) and the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) met with the ANC in Johannesburg.

BASA MD Cas Coovadia said in a statement this meeting focused on the ANC’s Economic Transformation and Strategy and Tactics discussion documents, which outline proposed economic policy ahead of the ANC Policy Conference this month.

"As the Banking Association, we welcome the open approach adopted by the ANC to its policy formulation. The current situation we find ourselves in requires that policymaking be inclusive, and undertaken with integrity followed by dogged implementation," he said.

Such a process, said Coovadia, will ensure that various sectors of society are willing to partner with government in the implementation of those policies.

"We believe that an approach that excludes or serves the narrow interests of one section or the other will be detrimental to our country."   

Without divulging the finer details of the meeting, Coovadia said it was amicable, adding that it was agreed that the groups would continue with further such engagements.

Business and ANC leaders have been at loggerheads over the country's ailing economy which has suffered multiple credit rating downgrades amid populist rhetoric such as calls for land seizures and radical economic transformation. Increasingly business executives have also spoken out against state capture and policy uncertainly from government.

Moody’s on Friday downgraded South Africa’s sovereign credit rating from Baa2 to Baa3 with a negative outlook hinged on a weakened institutional framework, reduced growth prospects, which limits the pace of structural reforms and an erosion of fiscal strength.

Responding to this, the ANC encouraged business and labour to work with government to help get the economy on track.

"The ANC calls on government, the private sector and organised labour to use this latest downgrade as a catalyst for greater urgency in working to alter our economic trajectory and boost confidence in our economy," it said in a statement.

"For its part, the ANC remains committed to transparency and inclusivity in the process of assessing and, if necessary, reviewing policy towards the organisation's 4th National Policy Conference and 54th National Conference scheduled for June and December 2017 respectively."

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba is set to hold a media briefing to talk about the way forward for the economy.

This after Cabinet endorsed a full media briefing by Gigaba to share with South Africans the interventions that government will embark upon to address the challenges facing the economy, said National Treasury in a statement.