Johannesburg - African leaders do not deliver and the dialogue between business and government needs to be more open, political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki said on Wednesday.
"I think one of the problems we have... we tend to defer to the leaders.
They must deliver," he said at the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) gala dinner.
"Our leaders in Africa don't deliver... Our leadership is not driving with business to develop South African brands."
Mbeki was part of a panel discussion on business in Africa and what was needed to take business forward.
He said that all over the world there was development and manufacturing but in South Africa this was neglected.
"Our politicians are fighting each other over crime instead of helping our business community."
Mbeki said one of the problems facing South African business was that government was paying civil servants "huge salaries" so graduates and entrepreneurs were not willing to take risks and start businesses.
"We have this failure of leadership in South Africa, it is a very comprehensive failure," he said.
"They [young graduates and entrepreneurs] are not going to take the risk of starting a business when a young civil servant is paid a huge salary."
Mbeki said outsiders were seeing opportunity in the country.
Another problem facing growth in the country was that business was not loud enough, he said.
Education in South Africa was also lacking because the country was not producing enough people with science and maths backgrounds and this was affecting development, Mbeki said.