Black business in South Africa was encouraged on Thursday to align its future endeavours to the country's new 'investment-led' economic growth path, which would require the emergence of a new class of black industrialists.

Speaking at the launch of the Black Business Council (BBC), Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan called for a form of business activism, built on the values not merely of profitable enterprises, but also companies that had a positive social and employment impact.

It would also require black business to follow up on the investment lead being taken by government - expressed primarily through the R850-billion infrastructure build programme - with private sector investments, particularly into the productive sectors of manufacturing, mining and farming.

Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel questioned where the "black industrialists" were, saying that their absence from industry was a constraint to the desire to shift the South African economy from its current consumption-led bias to one that should be driven by the productive sectors.

Department of Public Enterprises director-general Tshediso Matona added that the historically unprecedented investment programme created a platform for sustained industrial development and transformation.

He encouraged the BBC to support the building of a new class of black industrialists, "literally from the factory floor", and for established white industrialists to form enterprise-level partnerships with black entrepreneurs, rather than merely pursuing "passive" empowerment deals.

Incoming BBC president Ndaba Ntsele said the organisation, which had decided to pursue a course outside of Business Unity South Africa, had heard the call for the creation of industrialists.

Ntsele added that black business was keen to tap into the opportunities emerging from the investment programmes and BBC was committed to ensuring that major black-controlled and -directed corporations emerged around the programme.

GOVERNMENT LEADERSHIP

Gordhan also used the platform to criticise those "cynics" arguing that government was playing too large a role in the infrastructure roll-out programme, particularly when those same commentators acknowledged that the private sector lack the confidence to invest in the economy.

"What are we supposed to do," he mused, while adding that government had decided to move ahead and demonstrate "our own confidence" in the future of the South African economy.

"[But] the time has also come for the private sector to come forward and engage meaningful dialogue with government and say: 'these are the investment projects we have, how can we work together," Gordhan said, adding that it would be difficult to encourage foreign direct investment in the absence of investment by domestic enterprises.

In the context of ongoing uncertainty in Europe and slower-than-anticipated growth rates even in the fast-growing emerging markets, boosting domestic demand would be key to sustaining the recovery momentum in South Africa. This would underpinned by Budgetary resources of R845-billion over the coming three years and an infrastructure project pipeline of R3.2-trillion over the coming 20 years.

He also criticised Moody's for placing a negative outlook on the country's credit rating and its downgrade confirmed on the deposit rating on South Africa's top five banks, saying the agency was painting South Africa with the same brush as countries in Europe and was failing to give the country credit for its well managed financial position.

"We really seriously disagree [with Moody's]," Gordhan said, adding that the downgrade of the South African National Roads Agency Limited after an injection of R5.8-billion into the agency was suggestive of Moodys' not having even read the 2012 Budget.