ON THE WATER
NEELS BLOM: The frustrating business of trying to talk to government
There is no arguing against belief, which is all the ANC has, so it must force the country to bend to its will. In this zero-sum game, the ANC’s gains are the nation’s loss
Not for the first time, business leaders got a tongue lashing over their restrained response to the government’s inexorable march to a populist drum as it leads the country towards a utopia of equally distributed wealth, effort and naptime. Who wants that? Not Ann Bernstein of the Centre for Development and Enterprise, who writes in Business Day that the "path of least resistance" taken by business means it "has failed to make the case — compellingly, publicly — for a much higher prioritisation of economic growth as a goal of policy". Well, yes and no. Yes, the economy is in such deep low-growth doo-doo that Bernstein’s cheerleading for more voice from business against the government’s lurch to the left and concomitant policy follies seems justified. But no, no matter how loudly business bleats, it will not be heard. The ANC government is deaf to all but its own purpose to cling to power at all costs, including by putting the party before the people.
Two instances illustrating...
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