EDITORIAL: Investment pledges? No, business needs electricity

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The lack of available power is probably the single largest cap on SA’s growth

If local and foreign companies are falling over themselves to pour money into SA, as President Cyril Ramaphosa told everyone at his investment conference last week, then why is growth stuttering along at less than 2%? And why has the unemployment rate set increasingly grim new records since he launched his annual shindig four years ago, even as Covid has waned?

And if SA’s investment climate is as ripe for the picking as Ramaphosa’s coterie of advisers suggest, why are two local businesses of long standing closing or relocating precisely because of a business environment they feel is wholly unsupportive? These realities suggest that the investment pledges Ramaphosa speaks of are largely political hot air — money that would have been spent on sustaining operations anyway, particularly in the case of the mining sector, where companies such as Impala, Anglo and Exxaro have long-term budgets for mines with a life of 20-plus years.

What Ramaphosa should be giving industry, rather than academic investment pledges, is simply more electricity.

 

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Good article. Pity you were part of his praise singing fan base at the last election

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