A recent slew of arrests linked to corruption are a much needed show of teeth by authorities and a boost of confidence, the chief executive of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) has said.

In a column published on the website of the association of South Africa's largest corporations and major multinational companies on Tuesday, Busi Mavuso said stories of corruption at State institutions and in the private sector over the years had further depressed the growth potential of the struggling economy.

She noted that a central cog of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s economic recovery plan was boosting confidence in the country’s renewal after a decade of demoralising tales about “State capture” under his predecessor Jacob Zuma.

“For any economic recovery to be sustainable, it has to be accompanied by visible action against those who were involved in looting the State,” Mavuso said.

“It’s been slow going and we’ve felt the frustration like most of the country, but we’ve seen an increase in momentum in recent weeks. Last week we saw some results.”

Several people have been arrested, among them former government officials, in connection with a deeply flawed asbestos audit in the Free State province which resulted in the wastage of more than R200-million.

Elsewhere, former and current senior police officials in KwaZulu-Natal province are also in the dock alongside businessman Thoshan Panday who was arrested last week for corruption and fraud worth R47-million relating to tenders for police accommodation and supplies during the 2010 World Cup hosted by South Africa.

Mavuso said when a commission of inquiry into State capture chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, which began its work in August 2018, had dragged on for weeks, months and years with no apparent consequence as witnesses revealed damning details of graft under Zuma’s leadership, South Africans had become wary that “no-one was going to be charged for what was almost industrial-scale theft of limited public resources”.

“What was needed to restore our confidence was arrests of the central characters involved in the years of rampant looting that contributed to the collapse of governance in State institutions,” she said.

“Last week’s arrest of eight people in three provinces related to the Free State R255-million asbestos audit corruption case, is a step in the right direction. Some may argue that it’s just the tip of the iceberg given what we’ve heard at the Zondo commission. But it is a start that will send a strong message.”

She said while the BLSA had been critical of the rate of progress by Ramaphosa’s government in clamping down on and prosecuting graft, it was cognisant of the legacy from the previous administration that placed South Africa on its downward path.

“Trying to extract the country from the endowment inherited from the Zuma administration was always going to be difficult, and its slow pace can be confidence-sapping,” said Mavuso.

“The recent spate of arrests will help ease the pressures that low confidence brings to bear on the economy while we’ve also seen evidence that reforms outside the criminal justice system are accelerating.”