‘Mainly gloom and doom at Ramaphosa’s meeting with business, but some positives’

Bruce Whitfield finds out about Cyril Ramaphosa’s meeting with Sandile Zungu business leaders at the Black Business Council.

On Tuesday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa held a virtual meeting with 90 South African business leaders following the devastation that followed a week of unrest.

The event was largely doomed and gloomy, but there were sparks of light, said Sandile Zungu, chairman of the Black Business Council (BBC).

CONNECTED: Ramaphosa holds a “crucial” meeting with business leaders for reconstruction

Bruce Whitfield interviewed Zung on The Money Show.

When business meets the president … there is a lot of decor, but what lies beneath is great anxiety and unhappiness about how things are done, but the meeting went very well.

Sandile Zungu, Chairman – Black Business Council

The meeting focused on feedback on how civil unrest has affected different business sectors.

The freight and logistics sectors were clearly hit hard, Zungu said, as was the food and clothing retail business.

The shining light was obviously mine, which said they were on their feet again … and very happy to contribute …

Sandile Zungu, Chairman – Black Business Council

But overall it was gloomy, it was a doom among the sectors.

Sandile Zungu, Chairman – Black Business Council

The President of the Council was also very focused on smaller businesses.

He cites statistics published by the South African Owners Association (Sapoa), which show that 90% of tenants in larger shopping centers are local small business owners.

These people tend not to be insured and are afraid to return to business because they die from lack of protection from law enforcement. So the focus on SSME is the right focus.

Sandile Zungu, Chairman – Black Business Council

One of the great proposals that came from the business was the creation of the so-called “Nail Recovery and Restoration Fund”.

Sandile Zungu, Chairman – Black Business Council

Especially what comes from the Black Business Council is that if you look at urban businesses, such as shopping malls, the local economy is dominated by people outside those cities. It is very important that while we are recovering, we do it better by including and ensuring that local operators have a larger share of their economy.

Sandile Zungu, Chairman – Black Business Council

What we liked was a very firm commitment from the President, who said that the National Treasury was responsible for finding the terms of the Fund.

Sandile Zungu, Chairman – Black Business Council

For more details, listen to the discussion of The Money Show:

This article first appeared on CapeTalk: “Mainly darkness and doom at Ramaphosa’s meeting with business, but some positives”

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