WIAAN VERMAAK: Will SA’s link to the stars be choked by red tape delays?

It’s no secret that SA is on a determined mission to charm international investors. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s proactive wooing of the SA-born genius behind Starlink and SpaceX, Elon Musk, who is also the richest man in the world, is just one of many moves under way to lure innovation, investment, technological breakthroughs and hard currency back onto home turf.

This is all well and good, but what happens when those investors bite — when they make practical plans to leverage SA’s prime geographic location, tenacious professionals, and a promised facilitated welcome for their tech and other investments?

The reality is that behind the curtain of the glittering pageant on stage, progress is slow, laws are outdated and disconnected, and officials and decisionmakers are not being properly upskilled or empowered to make bold choices to enable rapid, responsible change for bold investment and development.

The devil, as always, is in the detail, and every sphere of government should be doing all it can right now to prepare and execute on the action required to practically enable that investment.

Local property developers have long bemoaned the arduous delays in the lengthy approval process for a compliant development. Certainly, the aspects the law requires to be taken under consideration such as financial viability, impacts and enhancements on the environment, heritage, nearby community and neighbouring properties are necessary and important. But the reality is that all too often every single decision in a multilayered and cross-departmental process runs until the very last day of each statutory period.

Commercial investors are inevitably under strict performance timelines, with heavy, cumulative penalties if there are any delays. Doing business in SA has, until now, required a stoic swallowing of words and pride, because boldly asking for quicker decision-making has in some instances carried with it the real risk of unethical requests for favours, and the consequences of not acquiescing. We know too well that many have taken the decision to simply not invest in the country, or to divest in favour of alternative developing economies in the region, where they are welcomed to get on with business.

Today, however, SA’s government of national unity is showing strong signs of a turning ship. The relationship between business, government and civil society is mending. But sentiment alone won’t get us to the 1.5%, 2% and even 3% growth rates that the market and Reserve Bank are predicting. We need to see real change where it matters. About 8.4-million South Africans are jobless, at an unemployment rate of 33.5%. So when it comes to investment facilitation, and what that means for the people of SA, change is required immediately in how investment and developments are approached.

If we’re serious about cutting red tape, we need a “green-is-for-go” ethos across every functional decision-making process across every level of government. No sensible investor should expect to sail uncritically through the approval process with no questions asked, and respect for the rule of law must remain paramount.

But there is a promised land in the middle where the law is applied fairly and swiftly, where catalytic investments and job-injecting projects are treated with urgency and care, and assigned to a “fast-track” custodian to keep the pressure up so that economic growth, job creation and fiscal expansion can be realised, and not reduced to rhetoric.

At our satellite gateway site we are spearheading a transformative initiative by establishing Africa’s only O3b MEO Gateway. This cutting-edge facility will serve not only the global economy but also drive the region’s adoption of Industry 5.0 technologies, and addresses the increasing demands of maritime traffic and internet connectivity off SA’s coasts. It will enable critical connectivity for commercial and humanitarian ships, positioning Cape Town as a strategic hub for high-speed satellite communications across Sub-Saharan Africa. It’s intended to contribute numerous benefits to the community and wider region:

• Thousands of direct and indirect jobs.
• Simulating local employment together with the opportunity to develop scientific, technological and innovation skills that are in global demand.
• Becoming an economic enabler for broader economic growth and job creation.
• Enabling training and skills transfers in the ICT/data centre market segment.
• Collaborating on digital development with institutions of higher education.
• New, state of the art, communications infrastructure including fibre will be rolled-out at no cost to the local municipality.
• Ensuring Africa is ready for the next wave of global AI economic growth and development, with Cape Town the preferred landing station of this kind.
• Driving access to quality connectivity for local communities and businesses.
• Improving satellite connectivity access across Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly for maritime and commercial activities rerouted due to geopolitical issues in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

We are determined to do all things responsibly to contribute to sustainable and meaningful economic growth and job creation through innovative and compliant solutions. Our concern, though, is that unless systemic changes are made across all levels of bureaucracy to enable the embracing of new tech for change and growth, investors will move on.

We are not alone in our call for more expedient decision-making within the legal framework. But where so many developers, investors and competitors may have become casualties in the war of attrition of doing business in SA, we have a renewed vigour and zest to do things properly — and quickly — so that SA’s people and tech ingenuity can both meet the world’s demands, and share knowledge, skills and hope for a better tomorrow. We are already engaging with the government towards this end.

SA’s jobs, growth and hopes are on the line. We need more than promises and pageantry, we need action to make this a reality.

• Vermaak is chief commercial officer of Data Campus Cape Town.