Forthright Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman has not changed his mind about SA being a “failed state” — but he has joined business’s new partnership with the government to halt the slide in the economy because it’s in the national interest, and he believes business can make a difference.
Froneman, who co-chairs business’s new crime and corruption workstream with Remgro CEO Jannie Durant, said though there are pockets of people in government doing the right thing the state was “emasculated” and government let the country down badly.
And while he welcomes the engagement of senior leaders of SA’s state security and law enforcement authorities with the government in the new Joint Initiative on Crime and Corruption (JICC), Froneman says business can still do a lot on its own within law to disrupt criminal syndicates.
It is pressing ahead though Business Against Crime (BAC), which is being “put on steroids” as an umbrella body to co-ordinate the crime-prevention capacity business already has, in industry bodies in sectors such as consumer goods, banking and mining as well as in the private security industry. Graham Wright, who led BAC from 2006-2012, has been hired as CEO. The business workstream has also embraced civil society organisations that approached it and are doing “outstanding work”, Froneman said.
Crime and corruption make up one of the three priority areas of the business-government partnership announced in June, along with energy and logistics, and it has been the slowest to establish. But senior leaders from agencies including the police, the Hawks, and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) have begun to engage with the business workstream over the past couple of weeks. “I am proud that the private sector has been able to engage with state security at the highest level for the first time,” said Froneman, who says the meetings have been good and constructive.
I’m not doing this because I suddenly think the ANC needs propping up. I think voters are acutely aware of how dire the situation is in SA. They need to vote in the right way ...
— Sibanye-Stillwater CEO
Neal Froneman
The JICC is in its formative stages, but it is starting to discuss details and identify priorities. “But I must tell you that if the chemistry doesn’t work, as business and civil society we can still achieve a lot.”
In an interview with Business Day on Friday, Froneman also welcomed the cabinet’s decision last week to approve draft amendments to the NPA Act that will give permanence and independence to the Investigating Directorate. This was one of the reforms that business had urged must be fast-tracked after President Cyril Ramaphosa promised last year to grant permanent status to the ID, a unit similar to the old Scorpions that was established in 2019 to investigate and prosecute state capture and other serious corruption cases.
Froneman’s decision to be part of the Business for SA initiative partnering with government on the economy has caused some surprise, given the aggressive response his “failed state” comments elicited from government a couple of years ago. And the business initiative itself has raised questions about whether business is trying to shore up a failed ANC ahead of the elections.
“I’m not doing this because I suddenly think the ANC needs propping up. I think voters are acutely aware of how dire the situation is in SA. They need to vote in the right way ...” he said. “This is not about helping the ANC. This is actually about helping our country ... The best way I can describe my willingness to get involved is the national interest. It’s for a government of the future that doesn’t need to inherit a mess. We can try to make a difference,” he said.
One area of focus for the business workstream is to support SA’s judicial services, where business is working to provide forensic laboratory and data analysis capacity that the NPA needs urgently. The other area is in crime prevention. Through BAC, which has been released from Business Leadership SA, where it was previously housed, business will also co-ordinate its own existing efforts to make these more effective in disrupting crime syndicates. Froneman emphasised that business recognised the independence of entities such as the NPA: “We can assist them with capacity as long as we don’t tell them how that capacity must be used.”
Business has responded to government requests to rebuild the SA Police Services’ failed 10111 emergency line as well as to help improve the effectiveness of police stations.
