CDE development and democracy
  • The roles of business and government in South Africa were discussed and debated during two conversations, hosted by CDE, among senior business leaders and economic experts.
  • Business in South Africa can do more in terms of showing its willingness to be a social partner in economic development.
  • Government has to ensure that it remains able to deliver, and does not end up begging from a multilateral institution because it has run into intractable fiscal problems.
  • The challenge that faces the state is how to bring about necessary economic reforms in such a way that the political pain of those reforms can be accommodated by the emerging democratic institutions.
  • None of the key players – business, labour, and government – can absolve themselves from the strategy that must be developed.