The recent meeting between Business Leadership SA (BLSA) and the Black Business Council (BBC) about business unity, as proposed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, bodes well for corporate South Africa, said BLSA chairperson Jabu Mabuza this week.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Top 500 Awards ceremony on Thursday evening in the north of Johannesburg, Mabuza said he agreed that there needed to be a united voice for business, and the meeting was a step in the right direction.
“We dissipate our cloud if we are not having a united voice. We know that and the BBC knows that. I have confidence that we are closer now than we have been in a while,” he said.
Asked if there was any chance of Business Unity SA (Busa), of which he is the president, and the BBC reconciling and cooperating at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) again, Mabuza shied away from committing, but said Busa had resolved not to object should the BBC launch an application to have its own seat at Nedlac.
“At the board meeting earlier in the week, we restated the position that we do not object to that. In principle, we have no objection to the BBC being accepted in its own right,” he said.
Busa is currently the only business voice at Nedlac. The two organisations previously had a cooperation agreement, but they fell out last year.
Delivering the keynote speech at the gathering, Mabuza said the country was experiencing record highs in business confidence, which it needed to take advantage of.
“We need to spend in this economy as consumers to create the demand. We need to invest as domestic investors to stimulate growth,” he said.
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