What is South Africa’s Strategic Direction?

For years, I kept my head down, focused on running my business and avoiding controversy. Like many business owners in South Africa felt the weight of history and the risks of speaking out too loudly. The fear of attracting undue attention, of being labeled or misunderstood, kept me cautious. Over time, I think that the business community has begun to realise that silence wasn’t serving them, their business, or the broader economy. Finding my voice isn’t about politics—it is about standing up for good governance, ethical leadership practices, and a future where all business owners and entrepreneurs can thrive and most importantly grow the economy and create jobs.

The recent failed tabling of the national Budget has given me a degree of optimism. It is the first time in 30 years in which the ruling party has not been able to push through a budget. On top of that, it was interesting to read a study published in late February indicating that despite a number of attempts to introduce populist policies (NHI, Transformation Fund, EWC Basic Income Grants etc.), the ANC support had according to the Social Research Foundation (SRF) dropped off.

In the interview with BizNews, the SRF indicated that 15% of the vote were undecided around who they might vote for. This is a big block of undecided voters.

Importantly, the SRF highlighted that the voting public does not typically support populist policies and are – despite what the politicians say – very moderate.

This means that we can now start to have more reasonable discussions about the future of South Africa and much of this will start by deciding on a strategic direction for the country.

I’ve recently finished preparing my monthly media column and I tried to equate South Africa to a third or fourth generation family business where the CEO had inherited riches but had squandered them along the way. I also highlighted the complete disconnect there was between the President (CEO), the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition (Chief Revenue Officer) and the Finance Minister (CFO) when it came to strategy. The CEO and CRO are talking up small businesses with the so-called Transformation Fund, a cannabis strategy, mining while the CFO doesn’t mention the words “SME”, “SMME”, “Small Business”, “mining”, “minerals” or “cannabis” once in his budget speech.

We have no clear strategy around where we want South Africa to go.

Contrast this to a country like India which has developed a very clear strategy to become a developed market by 2047. (“Viksit Bharat”).

If South Africa was a business, the Exco would arguably be over the coals by its board for two things. The first is a lack of alignment on strategy and the second [which ties into the first] is a lack of a focus on revenue. We seem to want to spend what we don’t have and then hope that revenue appears.

At a practical level:

• You can be the best intentioned CEO or Exco leadership team in the world but if you’re having a fight with one of your biggest customers (USA), then you can’t double down on promoting their competitors.

• I looked at the example of tourism which sees 25 000 – 27 000 Americans and a similar number of people from the United Kingdom visiting South Africa every month and bringing inbound hard currency into the country. You don’t pander to the 2500 Russians or 300 Iranians arriving each month. This is like being a highly paid executive of Coca Cola and going to your shareholder meeting and saying that Pepsi are a better investment. It just doesn’t happen in the real-world.

• If one of your biggest “divisions” – in this case the mining sector – saw its annual revenue contribution drop by R100bn between 2023 and 2024, heads would roll.

• If you know that one of your biggest foreign investment lines – European automakers – are undergoing structural issues, what is the strategy for incentivising them to stay invested? The World Bank has already said that frictional costs like BEE and high labour costs is probably not the answer.

South Africa stands at a crossroads, and the direction we take will be shaped not just by policymakers, but by the voices of those who drive the economy. For too long, business leaders have hesitated to challenge the status quo, fearing the consequences of speaking out. However, the fallout from the Budget speech has proven that we can speak up and demand more accountability, more strategic thinking, and more courage from those in positions of influence. If we want a country that fosters growth, innovation, and opportunity, we cannot afford to remain silent. Now is the time for business leaders to find their voices, to demand better governance, and to help shape a future where economic success is built on integrity and action.