The mammoth task president Cyril Ramaphosa has in achieving $100bn of inward foreign investment as a main component of reigniting our economy was brought home this weekend by a memo penned to him by five of our main trading partners  – the US, Switzerland, Netherlands, UK and Germany.

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The memo urges that more demonstrable action has to be taken to reassure them that we are not becoming an ‘openly corrupt state where criminality is the normal course of business’. Essentially, they are telling the president that the time of preaching the gospel of clean governance is over, and that he needs, to be quite blunt, to start putting his money where his mouth is by calling to account high-profile politicians implicated in corruption.

Zondo Commission

While many in the ruling party are vocal that the full process of the Zondo Commission must unfold before judgement is passed on those implicated, I am puzzled by the contradiction evident in reports that government departments are looking at ways to cancel all contracts with the Bosasa group of companies at the centre of the corruption storm. Surely they are acting on the same evidence that implicates the accused?

Apart from this tsunami of corruption revelations that has painted us in the worst possible light, South Africa is up against stiff competition for the international investment dollar from many emerging economies, not least on our continent.

Countries such as Rwanda and Ghana have rocketed up the ranks of world competitiveness by improving their value proposition to international investors.

Foreign investment

They have done this by deregulation, reducing red tape, and speeding up approvals. In the mining sector for example, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe have made significant changes to their mining legislation to make them much more attractive investment destinations. Issues such as relaxing local ownership requirements and easier repatriation of profits have been addressed to favour foreign investment.

Contrast this with the uncertainty that still exists in our mining charter and the negativity evident in the conflict over mining in Xolobeni which has remained unresolved for years.

So the simple message to the president is:

 Show us you are really serious about stamping out corruption and arresting our spiral into a criminal state

 Create policy certainty – from the land issue to the mining charter and radio frequency bandwidth

 Get your key institutions functioning again – SARS, NPA and the PIC

After matriculating, Vijay Naidoo studied Economics in the UK. Upon his return, hejoined the family construction business as MD for 10 years.

He subsequently joined his sister in their furniture manufacturing business as director for quality assurance and operations. He was responsible for all quality aspects of their products, and led the project to the business achieving an ISO 9000 quality accreditation. As an export focused business, this was important for our international competitiveness.

Mr Naidoo has an abiding interest in quality management and productivity improvement, particularly in manufacturing.

More recently, he has focused a lot of his time on giving back to the community by way of mentorship of small businesses and sitting on the executive of the South Coast Chamber of Commerce. He also sits on the Board of the Ugu South Coast Development Agency.

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