Ramaphosa seeks new investment pledges

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying he was in “repair mode”, opened an investment summit on Friday where he will seek billions of dollars of new spending pledges from foreign investors to haul the economy out of recession.

The former union leader, who inherited a disastrously mismanaged economy from the scandal-plagued Jacob Zuma earlier this year, wants $100 billion of new investments over the next five years. He has already secured pledges for around $35 billion, mainly from China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

South African media and e-commerce giant Naspers said on Friday it would invest R4.6 billion  ($315 million) over the next three years in its technology businesses and to fund technology start-ups.

Read: Naspers to invest billions in SA technology start-ups

Though he has made reviving the economy a top priority since assuming power in February, he has been hampered by fiscal constraints and infighting in the ruling African National Congress.

“We are here to build a country driven by enterprise and innovation,” Ramaphosa said in his opening speech to the investment summit which will look at opportunities in sectors including agriculture, manufacturing and energy.

“We are in repair mode,” he added.

When he took over in February from Zuma, Ramaphosa staked his reputation on economic revival and he was welcomed by investors in part due to his strong ties to the business community. Since then, the economy has sunk into recession and faced a series of downbeat data.

Ramaphosa, in an interview with Bloomberg television on Friday, said he had found it much tougher to repair the economy than he first thought.

The investment summit follows a jobs summit earlier this month at which Ramaphosa announced a wide-ranging set of deals between government, big business and labour which he said would create 275 000 more jobs a year.

Read: SA’s committed to protecting property rights and reviving economy

Under pressure over his track record on the economy, Ramaphosa has also unveiled a “stimulus and recovery plan” which earmarked funds for job creation and infrastructure development.

The scale of the challenge facing Ramaphosa was underlined by finance minister Tito Mboweni’s bleak medium-term budget speech on Wednesday, when he unveiled weak growth forecasts and deficit estimates.