The aspiration to forge a closer and more constructive collaboration between government, business and labour has emerged as the predominant theme of the postelection administration.

In his recent State of the Nation address, President Jacob Zuma revealed that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa had been mandated to convene a “social partners dialogue”, through the National Economic Development and Labour Council, to improve relations between government, business and labour. He also promised to convene a meeting of the ‘Presidential Business Working Group’ to find solutions to South Africa meeting government’s 5% growth target by 2019.

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene followed up with a warning that current measures being used to increase the country’s competitiveness – from industrial incentives and infrastructure investment, through to cutting red tape for small businesses – would be insufficient to ensure higher economic growth and more jobs.

Government, business and labour, he said, had to work more closely together to ensure the innovative and optimal mobilisation of resources needed for economic progress. “We must find a balance between meeting the earnings expectations of shareholders, the realisation of the vision of economic transformation required by the electorate and occupying our rightful place as global corporate citizens,” Nene told a forum organised by KPMG.

He also insisted that such a balance was possible, pointing to South Africa’s political settlement as an example of “what can be achieved if we all commit to finding such a balance”.

Nene was also not alone in seeking closer links with social partners, with Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson inviting members of the public to recommend people who can serve on a ‘Ministerial Advisory Council on Energy’.

“I have decided that, over and above the Department of Energy expertise . . . we are going to need input from other experts in the energy sector,” she said during a recent interaction with businesspeople.

The proposed panel, which will include academics, members of civil society, the labour movement and engineers, will “serve as a sounding board on many of the challenges that we confront in the energy sector”.

“We want to crowd in solutions by tapping into some of the ideas that remain unheard,” Joemat-Pettersson said, while stressing that enhanced engagement and coordination would be a central theme of this term of government.

Nene stressed that government and business were already working together, highlighting in particular a collaboration related to the cutting of red tape. “The director-general of the National Treasury and Mr Bobby Godsell co-chair a process that has yielded results in terms of addressing blockages to the issuing of water licences. This process is also dealing with environmental regulations relating to mining, as well as bottlenecks relating to business registrations.”

But he has also appealed to business to help with the identification of sector-specific interventions to increase productivity and innovation. “The National Development Plan presents us with a menu of solutions. Our joint responsibility now is to break the plan into smaller, bite-size chunks,” he said.