The visit to these shores of long-serving German Chancellor Angela Merkel should focus South African minds on the opportunities that exist in our relationships with the outside world.
Merkel has put some effort into enhancing commercial ties with Africa, notably through the G20 Compact with Africa. From the experience of the Institute of Race Relations, there is no lack of goodwill towards South Africa by decision-makers in Germany, and some definite interest in the business opportunities on offer.
Long-time market analyst, Peter Attard Montalto of Intellidex put this down to a failure to recognise that attracting investment is about having an ‘X-Factor’ – establishing an internal dynamism that can get those with money and ideas intrigued and excited. Investors, entrepreneurs, will be attracted to a country based largely on the returns that can be earned.
The degradation of property rights through Expropriation without Compensation is another. Little is so unsettling to business people as a threat to the security of their assets – this is all the more so since the ruling party’s proposal that the executive, rather than the courts, should set compensation.
Time and circumstance are not on South Africa’s side. The optimism that President Cyril Ramaphosa brought with him has largely evaporated, and the hope that action was imminent after he had achieved some sort of ‘mandate horizon’ seems now hopelessly misplaced.