Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busisiwe Mavuso believes Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on February 6 was “a display of unity by the Government of National Unity (GNU)”.

“[It] did what it needed to do – focused us all on delivering the reforms needed to achieve 3% GDP growth by the end of this year. It was detailed and about real delivery, rather than promises.

“It rightly highlighted the progress we’ve made in electricity reform, logistics and criminal justice, among much else, while also highlighting the importance of pushing those reforms,” she said in her weekly newsletter published on February 10.

Mavuso said the reforms highlighted by Ramaphosa depended on widespread backing from all parties, with a goal towards seeing implementation.

“I find it encouraging that parliamentarians from all GNU parties [have] clearly signalled their support for [Ramaphosa]’s words,” she said.

Mavuso noted that perhaps the most prominent new focus for government was now on underperforming municipalities, with promises having been made to establish professionally managed utilities for water and electricity provision which can ringfence revenue to ensure appropriate infrastructure investment.

A broader process to redesign the local government system was also welcome, she said, to address what had become the weakest link in government service delivery, and a growing risk to other public sector institutions such as Eskom which were owed billions of rands in debt.

Mavuso said the proposed consultation process leading to a White Paper would be an important opportunity to develop new thinking that enabled local governance that was sustainable and of better quality.

“Business has a clear interest in supporting local government and BLSA has done so by funding mentorship programmes for municipal engineers and the repair of waterworks, for example, enabling schools to access running water and toilets.

“Efficient local services are essential for our communities as well as the businesses that operate within them. We look forward to engaging with the process to think through how we can improve the performance of local government,” she said.

Mavuso pointed out that, following the SoNA, attention would now be turned towards the Budget, which was expected to be delivered by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on February 19.

“There were several pledges from [Ramaphosa] that will need to be delivered through the Budget. Among them are promised reforms to the regulations governing public-private partnerships (PPPs), an arrangement that allows public and private sectors to partner to invest in and deliver large infrastructure projects.

“These reforms have been in the making for several years and it is high time they were finalised so we can get on with the job of turning South Africa into a construction site,” Mavuso said.

Along with those, Ramaphosa also noted the ambition for innovative ways to get private investment into logistics and electricity.

“This requires government to accelerate reforms, particularly in logistics, to enable swifter collaboration and transactions between the State-owned enterprises and private operators, through concessions and other mechanisms.

“The economy would benefit greatly, for example, from competition between ports and rail routes, which could be created by concessioning use to different private operators,” Mavuso said.

She added that the upcoming budget would also have to contend with the withdrawal of foreign assistance from the US government, particularly for the Pepfar programme, which contributed to South Africa’s management of the HIV/Aids pandemic.

“Of course, the US remains an important trading partner to South Africa and our respective private sectors have extensive relationships that will remain strong,” Mavuso said.

She added that, with the SoNA out of the way, she was encouraged by the direction government was going in and the opportunity to work with it to ensure the country could achieve its growth objectives.

“Next week we will see the next important push from [Godongwana] and I hope it will provide further impetus to our joint efforts,” Mavuso said.