The private sector is so far working with government on six of the ten energy crisis work streams, for which business raised R100-million to procure skills and expertise for donation on an arm's length basis to the Presidency, within which the National Energy Crisis Committee (Necom) is housed.

Business for South Africa (B4SA) chairperson Martin Kingston expressed the view that it is technically possible to put an end to loadshedding by the end of 2024, which is the objective of the joint energy effort. The two other challenges being tackled are transportation and logistics, and crime and corruption.

B4SA is an alliance of South African business leaders working with the South African government and other social partners to help deliver sustainable solutions for South Africa.

“We're not going to assume the role and responsibility of the State. It would be wholly inappropriate, but we can certainly partner with them, bring our skills, expertise, and indeed commitment to bear,” said Kingston, who spoke to Engineering News & Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview on Thursday. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

In the case of South Africa’s transportation and logistics challenges, areas of focus are being jointly defined, along with the appropriate resourcing of those work streams: “I think it'll take a little bit longer, but yes, we're certainly beginning to see progress emerge and traction being gained,” said Kingston, who emphasised the need to ensure sharp focus on a limited number of interventions that can move the needle as quickly as possible, “and that's what I believe we're going to start seeing in the next few weeks”.

A joint strategic oversight committee, which mirrors what was successfully implemented during the Covid pandemic and which is now also expected to deal successfully with the three energy, transport and logistics, and crime and corruption challenges, is committed to meeting fortnightly, ahead of reporting to the President every six weeks.

“Each and every one of the workstreams in the underlying areas of focus are up and running or being mobilised, so there are indeed early signs of real progress and green shoots, but it'll take several months to see real progress start to emerge.

“We're very mindful of the need to be at arm's length so that we don't, in any shape, size or form, undermine the integrity and the independence of the State in providing the support that's required," Kingston emphasised.

Engineering News & Mining Weekly: How willing is government to partner effectively with organised business in dealing with South Africa’s infrastructure and law and order challenges?

Kingston: The South African authorities recognise that we need effectively all hands to the pump to deal with very fundamental challenges, which act as a brake on real inclusive growth and that growth leads to employment and deals with many of the challenges that we've got in the country at the moment. We had a very successful experience of partnering with the government during the Covid pandemic in 2020, and the vaccination rollout in 2021, and we've used that as the basis for partnership with them in the three areas that we're focusing on. Of course, there are different pockets of government that are more supportive than others, but from the President down, there is a wide acknowledgement that we need to put all of our collective shoulders to the wheel and see how we can bring the best resources to bear from all social partners, I have to say, not just from business and indeed from the public sector, to try and address these very fundamental constraints in the system.

Have these public-private initiatives been set up in a way that positive results are seen as being highly likely?

I’d love to think that highly likely is an immediate outcome but I think we need to manage our expectations in this particular respect. The most important thing from our perspective was to (a) make sure that we have an integrated approach from business....