‘Irrational' policy-making hurting jobs, growth in SA

Government's “irrational” policy-making has been criticised as it damages efforts to grow the economy, with the private sector pointing to the sudden withdrawal of crucial credit regulation reforms that would have helped small businesses access loans more easily as an example.

- Ina Opperman

Busisiwe Mavuso, CEO of Business Leadership South Africa, says in her weekly newsletter that last week began with promise for small business reform, but ended in policy chaos.

“Three steps forward and two steps back,” she said.

“It felt like government was making good progress on two fronts: easing the labour law burden on small companies and enabling lending to small businesses.

“But by the end of the week, the second one was shockingly withdrawn despite its obvious benefit to a large part of the economy.”

Mavuso says positive reforms are essential to turn around South Africa's poor economic growth and tackling its unemployment crisis.

“Through Nedlac and initiatives such as Business For South Africa, we work extensively to help develop proposed policy changes that can contribute to improving the business environment.”