Johnathan Paoli
THE European-Southern Africa CEO Dialogue Forum kicked off with an interesting engagement between the leaders of the ANC, DA and ActionSA, with EFF leader Julius Malema failing to appear because of technical glitches.
The Chief Editor of CNBC Africa Godfrey Mutizwa was moderating a panel on the theme “The Future of South Africa: 30 years of democracy and beyond” on Wednesday joined by ANC SG Fikile Mbalula, DA Leader John Steenhuisen and ActionSA President Herman Mashaba.
Mutizwa questioned the delegates on what their respective parties considered as the agenda in order to ensure a prosperous and equal South Africa.
DA Leader John Steenhuisen, expressed his dire concerns over the consequences of the SA government’s loud rebuking of Israel in light of the country’s relationship with the west.
Steenhuisen said that it was not the state’s role to dictate, but rather to create an environment which facilitates a partnership between the state and the private sector, in order to unleash entrepreneurship.
The DA leader further called for the complete privatisation and outsourcing of ports and civic service as the ultimate antidote to the collapsing structures.
Steenhuisen called for the complete professional operation of the country’s ports, and a complete end of what he called cadre-deployment and the political appointment of civil service executives; and called for a complete transformation of state structures.
“South Africa needs chemotherapy, not aroma therapy,” Steenhuisen said.
ActionSA President Herman Mashaba started off with a critique of the ANC and called for stricter measures in order to effectively engage the obstacles standing in the way of the country’s development.
Mashaba critiqued Cosatu and the role of trade unions in the South African political landscape.
“I’m not a friend of labour unions because they have destroyed our economy, but I respect labour, and labour has a crucial role to play in protecting our workers, but they will never have a veto right over our economies,” Mashaba said.
In addition, the ActionSA leader called for a more “brutal” police force in order to ensure that criminals respect the rule of law.
Mbalula exalted the historical achievements of the ruling party over the last century and said due to the massive backlog and debt inherited from the Apartheid regime, the ANC started off on a disadvantaged foot.
Despite accusations of taking sides, Mbalula said that the ANC always has been and continues to be a non-racialist, multiracial organisation that believed in peace and human rights.
“We come from a history of colonialism which we call a colonialism of a special type, where the coloniser and the colonised became inhabitants of the same land.
“That is why we don’t subscribe to the notion that our former colonisers must leave this country. We are a non-racial party, and we espouse that in our foreign policy, and we believe in multilateralism,” Mbalula said.
Mbalula said South Africa needed to be bold in terms of reforms, particularly in terms of SOEs such as Transnet and that business was ready to come to the party in establishing an agreement to solidify implementation, and facilitate concessions in public and private partnerships in order to unlock the growth potential.
INSIDE POLITICS
