NEWSMAKER
'Show you're also playing your part', Gareth Ackerman tells business
Business sector urged to counter idea it is not investing in country
The private sector needs publicly to counter the government narrative that it is doing little or nothing for the country, says Pick n Pay chairman Gareth Ackerman. "My impression is that government people think business is doing nothing, making no investments, just relying on government to do everything, which is absolutely not the case." There's no real understanding of the private sector's contribution, he says. Many corporations could be doing more, even if they just stand up and speak out about what they are doing. "They should be saying: 'This is what we're doing, this is how much we're investing, this is how many jobs we've created this year, this is how many people we're employing,' " says Ackerman. Pick n Pay has been extremely upfront about its contribution. "We've stood up and said we've invested R5bn in the past four or five years; this year alone we're investing R1.7bn into our business, creating another 4,000 jobs. We've created 14,000 jobs over the last three years." A...
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