South Africa seems to have died and woken up in heaven, with President Cyril Ramaphosa at the helm.
This is according to Business Leadership SA (BLSA) chief executive Bonang Mohale in his description of what the country has gone through since last December.
Addressing the media at the organisation’s offices in Sandton earlier in the week, Mohale said the Guptas were appointing ministers until the ruling party “gifted” the country with a new president last December.
“Something absolutely wonderful happened on December 20, when we were gifted with a new president of the ANC who then went on to become the president of the country seamlessly – without a single bullet being fired,” Mohale said.
Elaborating on why he thought the country was in post-Gupta heaven, Mohale said the ascendance of Ramaphosa represented hope for the economy. He said the continent was poor because of the choice in leadership.
“It’s no exaggeration that Africa by and large is poor by choice, and South Africa is no different,” he said.
He said the investment target is achievable, and the BLSA would be lobbying its members to contribute to the $100 billion in new investments over the next five years.
“To demonstrate as business that we are not on an investment strike, we asked our members to put our money where our mouth is, and to raise the $100 billion locally first because that will be a major vote of confidence,” Mohale said.
“This announcement continues the set of ambitious but attainable targets we saw coming out of the 2018 state of the nation address, and we welcome it. We believe the R1.2 trillion target is achievable, especially if we support it with badly needed structural reforms and policy certainty,” he added.
ON MARK LAMBERTI...
Mohale said the organisation had a “difficult conversation” with Lamberti and even convened an emergency board meeting a week ago about the issue.
The organisation came under fire for its notable silence when the high court ruled against Lamberti, its longest-serving director, in a discrimination-related case, after a three-year court battle. It only grew a voice when Lamberti resigned earlier in the week.
“We have had difficult conversations from the very beginning,” he said, adding that the BLSA was waiting for due process to be followed.
“We waited for a scheduled board meeting, and after the resignation from Eskom we decided it was going to be too long. We then had an emergency board meeting and that meeting accepted his resignation,” he said.
Mohale thanked Lamberti for giving the BLSA space to execute its important tasks.
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