Tag: Cyril Ramaphosa

After three years of public hearings and with a price tag of over a billion Rand, Justice R.M.M. Zondo, the Acting Chief Justice of the Republic of South Africa, handed the fifth and sixth parts of the report on state capture and corruption during the presidency of Jacob Zuma, to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

After three years of public hearings and with a price tag of over a billion Rand, Justice R.M.M. Zondo, the Acting Chief Justice of the Republic of South Africa, handed the fourth part of the report on state capture and corruption during the presidency of Jacob Zuma, to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Tonight President Cyril Ramaphosa will rise in Parliament to review the current State of the Nation, and to indicate what he will be doing over the next 12 months to steer South Africa through the very troubling waters the country is currently in.

Somewhat ironically, each new year launches into the same old news cycle: the WEF meetings at Davos, the State of the Nation (Sona) speech, presentation of the national Budget to Parliament. Those a bit longer in the tooth may feel that it’s all over-hyped – 'sound and fury, signifying nothing' – because invariably these events don’t become watershed moments, just brief intermissions that change little, if anything.

In his much-lauded State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Cyril Ramaphosa devoted considerable attention to the challenge of rooting out corruption in government. The IoDSA has consistently argued that ethical institutions in both the public and private sectors alike are created from the top down, and that an organisation’s directors bear the main responsibility for ensuring that ethics are embedded in its DNA.

As State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) continue to struggle under severe financial pressure, perhaps it is time for them to consider business rescue to alleviate continued financial distress and to avoid potential personal liability of directors who continue to run these companies and rely on the inevitable call up of a government guarantee. 

Many South Africans feel that they woke from a nightmare and that the morning is near. Hearing that Mr. Ramaphosa wants to put South Africa first and that he wants to get people employed is viewed with cautious optimism. Many South Africans still feel the sting of a hostile and selfish national leadership and it will take time to regain the people’s trust.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver his maiden State of the Nation Address (SONA) on 16 February 2018. The annual speech kicks off the Parliamentary year and focuses on the country’s current political and economic situation. Regarding the latter, South Africa experienced deteriorating economic conditions during 2014-2017, and there is great hope for an improvement in economic growth during 2018 under the new administration.

The need for ethical leadership is much clearer and more urgent now than it has ever been since the dawn of the new South Africa. Unfortunately, it took massive corruption to elevate the importance of ethical leadership in the public consciousness, and so the cost has been high to get us to this level of awareness.

What’s it all about and what does it mean for the South African investor? It’s that time of year again where more than 2,500 of the world’s top leaders including heads of state, central bankers and representatives from most of the world’s top companies converge on the little town of Davos in Switzerland to share ideas, promote agendas and generally just network.