panel discussing challenges around the business environment and the economy at The Gathering in Cape Town on Thursday morning.
Founder of the Purple Group and former head of SA Post Office Mark Barnes at The Gathering on 24 November, 2022. journalist and host Ray Mahlaka posed the question of how to deal with the ticking time bomb of unemployment.
“My solution as an ageing journalist is that we need a completely different approach to government and the private sector. Government is trying to fix the problems but they are doing the wrong things. What they should do is let the private sector take over,” he said.Cohen said the idea that the government should be a job creator is one of the reasons South Africa’s growth rate is lower than it needs to be.
However, Barnes pointed out that the SA Post Office has a wide footprint nationally and could be used by the government to drive programmes such as vaccine rollouts, as one example. “The trouble is we are stuck in old definitions. There are people in government and business who are too damn old to see a long enough track to make co-designed investments,” he said.
But govt doesn’t listen
This GovernmentZA can NEVER be trusted