ANC’s pro-poverty honesty welcomed as wake-up call for business – IRR

Sébastien de Place, president of the Foreign Trade Advisors for France in South Africa, issued a stark warning to the government this week: foreign business investments in South Africa are at risk until fundamental economic challenges are resolved.

This comes as no surprise to most South Africans – energy stability, logistics efficiencies, port competitiveness, anti-corruption measures, and improved investor visa processes are all pressing concerns.

Yet, in a revealing comment on social media yesterday, the ANC again placed itself on the side of the enemies of economic growth and opportunity.

Instead of admitting to and undertaking to address the comprehensive failures of governments under ANC control, one of its spokespersons in Gauteng, the province that has long been the economic engine of South Africa, exposed the ANC’s reckless indifference.

Tshikani Reckson Hasani, spokesperson for the ANC in the Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality, home to South Africa’s most important airport, OR Tambo International Airport, described French companies as “replaceable entities”. Hasani went further, calling for the immediate closure of the French embassy to South Africa.

Said Hermann Pretorius, IRR head of strategic communications: “Given that the European Union is one of South Africa’s most important trade destinations, with France being South Africa’s second largest trading partner in the EU and our leading trade partner in Africa, it is somewhat surprising that the ANC would be so blatant about its aggressive pro-poverty ideology. But the honesty is to be welcomed.”

Added Pretorius: “This is another instance of the ANC exposing its intense antipathy to the very idea of economic growth. The concerns raised by Mr. de Place are of inarguable validity. For the ANC to respond with such ignorant arrogance as to dismiss foreign investors in South Africa as replaceable and call for the idiotic severance of diplomatic ties with a key trading partner is more evidence that the ANC has firmly sided with the pro-poverty forces in South Africa.

“The stark choice emerging in this country is one between poverty and growth. South Africa is rapidly becoming the battleground of those who want economic growth and socio-economic upliftment through jobs and opportunities and skills development, and the peddlers of poverty.”

Pretorius concluded: “It would be a waste of time calling for the ANC to act against Cllr. Hasani. He is, in fact, to be lauded for presenting the beliefs of his party so clearly and honestly. What the IRR, however, is calling for is for South Africans, especially those in business, to wake up.

“The mask has slipped. The excuses no longer work. The platitudes of social compacts no longer obscure the truth of failure. Those who align themselves willingly with the peddlers of poverty will get what they deserve: the brutal judgement of history and the well-earned label coined by Moeletsi Mbeki – architects of poverty.”

Media contact: Hermann Pretorius IRR Head of Strategic Communications Tel: 079 875 4290 Email: hermann@irr.org.za

Media enquiries: Michael Morris Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za

Sinalo Thuku, Tel: 073 932 8506 Email: sinalo@irr.org.za