The Star E-dition

Unrest: SA may lose R1.5 trillion

Concerns failure to prevent looting mayhem has put investment for SA, region in jeopardy

WILLEM PHUNGULA willem.phungula@inl.co.za

SOUTH Africa and its neighbouring countries could lose R1.5 trillion in foreign investment for failing to prevent violent protests and looting that took place two weeks ago.

This was contained in a letter written to president Cyril Ramaphosa by Mathews “MK” Malefane, a foreign investment facilitator for South Africa and countries under the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

In the four-page letter that The Star’s sister paper, the Daily News has seen, Malefane explained how hard he was trying to convince foreign investors not to pull their investment because of the past weeks’ unrest.

He said he had received a call from the chairperson of $100 billion Foreign Direct Investment for SADC, who expressed grave concern for the security of the investment in the country given the past weeks’ mayhem, which also put the investment in the rest of the region in jeopardy.

Malefane said he requested a couple of days from the investors to reassure them that the mayhem would be brought under control and would not recur.

Further, he said in this $100bn investment, which he calculated at R1.5 trillion after conversion to rand, a significant portion was allocated for KwaZulu-Natal’s North Coast, the Lanseria Smart City Development and the Vaal Economic Development referred to as Wakanda Africa Value Ecosystem.

Malefane warned the president that a solution to the unrest was urgently needed and proposed a national summit to come up with a turnaround strategy which would ensure that the unrest never happened again, and would reassure the investors that it was still safe to do business with South Africa.

He said the summit would produce a turnaround solution, share and have it adopted at national political, business and civil society level.

He proposed the inclusion of former president Kgalema Motlanthe, businessman Patrice Motsepe and former public protector Thuli Madonsela as panellists.

“An urgent consultative process must begin with key role-players and stakeholders for their buy-in and input into the summit’s agenda and outcomes. The summit will observe full Covid19 protocols with a maximum of 500 delegates in a 1 000 capacity conference venue and others will attend virtually,” said Malefane in a letter.

He further proposed the immediate establishment of a seven-day war room to start preparing for the summit and requested the government to fund it for R1 million. Part of the proposal would be the launch of an International Marketing Committee which would incorporate the following key action items:

a) Review and analysis of critical data to develop seamless messages across various communication platforms and also to prepare a list of key stakeholders.

c) Set up of a high-powered national/ international steering committee/advisory team for the campaign.

d) Lobbying support of the greater AU, UN, and international and regional organisations, especially NGOs.

Malefane confirmed the letter to the Daily News but said he was not prepared to give more details before the Presidency had responded to it.

Presidential spokesperson Tyrone Seale said the Presidency had not received the letter yet. Madonsela’s daughter, Wenzile Madonsela, confirmed that her mother had received it but was not sure whether she had responded to it or not.

Attempts to reach Motlanthe and Motsepe were unsuccessful.

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2021-07-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://thestar.pressreader.com/article/281496459319729

African News Agency