Business organisation Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso says business was hoping for a greater sense of urgency and stronger commitment from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA) to accelerating both the reform agenda and infrastructure rollout.

“Overall, BLSA believes the President could have done more to address blockages to the efficient implementation of already agreed policy and didn’t go far enough to build confidence that 2022 would be the year of delivery.

“Business was hoping for another ‘big bang’ announcement of a way to break out of the inertia that seems to be bogging down both the infrastructure rollout and reforms to the energy sector,” Mavuso posits.

However, the organisation welcomes Ramaphosa’s focus on the small business sector, including a redesigned loan scheme for small businesses, which will involve development finance institutions.

“He also provided an important update on the drive to build a capable State, saying government would soon be finalising a framework for the professionalisation of the public service,” Mavuso highlights, emphasising that improving the capacity of the public sector is vital to long-term development.

Mavuso asserts that, in some areas, there were some positive elements, but also some missed opportunities.

She posits that extending the R350 a month social relief of distress grant to end-March 2023 rather than going for a “big bang” introduction of a permanent basic income grant was the sensible option.

“There is an obvious need for more extensive social welfare support. This is an area that needs careful research into the repercussions that higher tax rates and possibly increased debt levels will have on the rest of the economy,” she cautions.

Mavuso mentions infrastructure development as a disappointing aspect of the SoNA.

“No recognition was given to the core problems that are delaying the rollout of infrastructure projects. Research commissioned by BSLA found that there is still not enough expertise in the field of large infrastructure projects in the correct areas of government while its systems and approval processes are cumbersome and unnecessarily complicated because they require input from numerous different government departments,” she says.

She also points out that Ramaphosa did not mention anything new in terms of the disbursement of the $8.5-billion pledged at COP26 towards the country’s just energy transition, instead repeating the announcement of the appointment of former Absa CEO Daniel Mminele as head of the Presidential Climate Finance Task Team.

Further, she describes Ramaphosa’s response to the expert panel’s report into the unrest in July last year as strong, as it promised changes in key positions within the security cluster and that 12 000 new police personnel would be recruited.

Moreover, she says the promise that those implicated in the Zondo reports into State capture will be prosecuted is important.

Ramaphosa also announced that government was conducting a detailed review of all applicable legislation and a comparative study of other jurisdictions to strengthen whistle-blower protection.

However, Mavuso says not much was said about the structures recommended by Judge Raymond Zondo to prevent corruption in future, such as the anti-corruption agency and measures designed to prevent tender fraud, besides others.

She does, however, acknowledge Ramaphosa’s strong stance on the Special Investigating Unit’s final report on its investigation into Covid-related contracts, wherein he noted that 45 cases, with a combined value of R2.1-billion, had been enrolled with the Special Tribunal.

BLSA also welcomes the President’s establishment of multi-disciplinary units to address economic sabotage, extortion at construction sites and vandalism of infrastructure.

“We will wait to see what the President has in mind with his 100-day target to achieve ‘a new consensus to deal with poverty, unemployment and inequality’. In BLS...