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Business lobby group Business Unity SA has warned President Cyril Ramaphosa against “overemphasis” on seeking consensus when making decisions, arguing that the crisis in which South Africa finds itself requires bold and decisive leadership that will not make everyone happy.

President Ramaphosa

Speaking at the organisation’s second Business Economic Indaba yesterday morning in Sandton, BUSA President Sipho Pityana said while government has been more open to engaging with the business community under Ramaphosa, an over-reliance on “leadership by consensus” could “condemn our nation to move at the pace of the slowest and the most conservative” or important decisions being vetoed.

Pityana said the state’s tendency to sit on the fence when time came to make tough decisions meant that while everyone spoke well at conferences and summits, promises made never materialised.

In place of real action to turnaround SA’s struggling economy, task teams were established.

“We surely have enough technical committees, task teams, Presidential commissions – including the planning commission whose recommendations gather dust in the presidency – summits, conferences and Lekgotlas, etc. Too many processes and little or no action,” said Pityana.

BUSA’s Indaba takes place at a time when SA is grappling with low economic growth, high unemployment and a power crisis.

In December Eskom took the unprecedented step of instituting stage 6 load shedding.

It also comes at a time when SA is facing the longest economic down-swing since 1945.

Last week, the World Bank became the first key institution to cut SA’s economic growth projection to below 1 percent for 2020, well below the National Treasury’s last projection that the country’s economy would grow by of 1,2 percent in 2020.

The stagnant economy is putting a strain on all sectors, with retail and mining bleeding jobs as companies continue to announce closures of non-performing stores and loss-making shafts. — Fin24.com