State of the Province Address: Cape Chamber applauds Premier Alan Winde's business-friendly approach
The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry is heartened by the business-friendly tone of Premier Alan Winde’s 2023 State of the Province Address.
We especially appreciate the commitment to private sector-led economic growth, a feature sadly lacking from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address earlier this month.
As a Chamber, we concur with the Premier that the private sector can identify opportunities to solve societal problems. Innovative and progressive private sector ideas should be adopted by the public sector without red tape.
In this regard, we appeal to the Premier to commit to the principle that the public sector should not be doing things that the private sector (markets) can do better.
We also appreciate the Premier’s support for coalitions (also known as clusters) of organised business, academia and public sector role players in addressing the many current economic and societal challenges. In this manner the public-private-sector dialogue can be enhanced to scale up innovation, thereby unlocking growth and job creation.
Unlike SONA, the Premier’s address was more focused on results rather than promises. We appreciate this approach, particularly in relation to the current energy crisis.
The persistent load shedding is unacceptable for business, and we are heartened by the R1 billion budget allocation to reduce ongoing negative impacts.
Efforts to secure alternative energy supply are also encouraging, although we urge the Province to ensure total transparency on energy plans and budgetary allocation.
The Premier is correct to be concerned about crime. Although the increase in crime in the Western Cape was below the national average, our own analysis suggests there has been a worrying recent crime upsurge in the Province.
During July to September 2022 the rate of increase in various categories of serious crime was higher in the Western Cape compared with the national average.
Provincial drug-related crime also increased by 35% during the 2021/2022 financial year while the national figures recorded a 17.7% increase.
These figures show there is zero room for complacency. We support the call for the devolution of selective policing powers to the Province.
While we applaud the Province for making inroads into addressing various other societal challenges such as youth unemployment and education, we are mindful of the results of our recent Business Environment Survey which suggest there is huge room for improvement.
For instance, 60% of survey respondents believe labour market policies do not assist the unemployed to re-skill or find employment. And 75% of respondents reported difficulties in challenging government actions/regulations through the legal system.
According to the survey, 64% of respondents believe it is not easy to find critical skills to make business more competitive, while 45% of respondents believe the costs of financial services impede business activity.
These are some of the factors the provincial government must address if they are to fuel and stimulate economic growth to achieve a R1 trillion provincial GDP target by 2035.
Regarding transport, we support the Premier’s call for devolution of the mandate for Metro Rail the City, and we note that transport infrastructure challenges are possibly the biggest challenge to the regional business environment.
We appreciate the relatively good governance of Provincial Departments and most Municipalities, but urge that compliance does not override service delivery.
As a Chamber, we also urge the public sector to embrace international standards in reporting their service delivery results, which would allow for a more thorough performance assessment.
The Province should set an example with real-time online dashboards for key performance indicators. In this way, citizens can hold their government to account, or see how small victories are being fought and won.
Jacques Moolman
President of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry