The Civil Engineering Contractor February 2018 | Page 39

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
that is why South Africa has become a
preferred destination,” he points out.
“So, the question that begs asking is: are
the investors uninformed? If you look at
the landscape, we have political instability
and policy uncertainty,” Mfebe adds and
continues: “Some investors have decided
to take great risks, in the hope that
things will change. But judging by the
low confidence index, both international
and domestic, there are others that
are standing back and watching what
transpires after the December ANC
conference, for example.”

Local vs international
investment
When it comes to investment, both local
and international private sectors are
affected by issues of political and policy
uncertainty, with the first to feel it being
the domestic investors, he says. “They are
‘on the ground’, so to speak. They don’t
hear from analysts what is happening in
the market; theirs is a lived experience.
This has been referred to as the private
sector being on ‘investment strike’ in
South Africa.
“The barometer against which you
measure the international investors’
confidence should be a domestic one,
because if the domestic investors do not
have confidence in their own economy,
how can we expect foreign investors to
have?” Mfebe says and adds that it is this
domestic wariness to invest that foreign
investors heed.
The solution, he maintains, is genuine
engagement with the private sector,
saying: “Not to just tick boxes to pacify
the ratings agencies.” Mfebe has a gauge
against which he measures state institution
performance, namely JMC: juniorisation,
mediocritisation, and capture.
“Mediocrity has become a virtue,” he
says and draws attention to “absentee
leadership”, which, he describes, is the
phenomena of ministers and business
leaders appearing to collaborate while
in public, but the reality is, when those
ministers are called on to engage, they are
absent, or unavailable. “You cannot have a
leadership that is not there to listen;
it creates mediocrity,” he stresses. “An
example is the delay in the promulgation
of the construction sector charter codes,
which were agreed on long ago. The
Minister has the power, within the terms
Webster Mfebe, CEO of SAFCEC, is optimistic that South Africa can once again be
Africa’s powerhouse.
of the law, to issue regulations and
gazette it, but he decided to take it to
Cabinet. Why has it taken so long to
promulgate, when Cabinet has since
endorsed it? We hope the notice in the
Government Gazette will happen anytime,”
he adds with mild optimism.
Mfebe draws attention to the fact
that large companies, with significant
investment in the construction sector,
have been downgraded under the
generic scorecard, rendering them non-
competitive in terms of government
tenders. “Who is going to bid on a
project, aware that their scorecard is
lowered to compete? Internationally,
which investors are going to invest
while there is uncertainty? To me, the
government is talking with a ‘forked
tongue’,” he says and urges the
government to “deal with this issue that
is causing the economy to stagnate”.
Genuine government engagement
with “social partners”, namely private
sector, labour, and community -based
organisations, will result in genuine
solutions, he maintains.
The notion of ‘state capture’ is
evident in the levels of incompetency of
“certain people” appointed to strategic
positions “as proxies, to advance the
interests of other people, their cronies,
and families”.
“Nothing is being done about the
damning evidence of the infestation
of the ruling party by thugs who
masquerade as leaders,” he adds with
contempt. “Developing countries
that have held us in high esteem are
starting to question what is happening
in South Africa? Advanced economies
that appreciated the miracle that was
achieved by an inclusive settlement,
without spilling blood — an
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