Business leaders give Ramaphosa their state of the nation speech
JOHANNESBURG – Business leaders have been ratcheting up the pressure on South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce decisive measures to turn around the economy and fix struggling state-owned enterprises.
Ramaphosa has the opportunity to do just that when he delivers his state-of-the-nation speech in parliament on Thursday. The address, which begins at 7 p.m. in Cape Town, has been billed by South Africa’s Business Day as the most important since Nelson Mandela’s in 1994 — the first after apartheid ended.
The chief executive officers of some of South Africa’s biggest companies want Ramaphosa to announce steps to help a nation stuck in its longest downward business cycle since World War II, with 29% of the population unemployed, and soaring violent crime leaving more than 50 people murdered every day.
Source: iol.co.za