It’s time for business to help South Africans vote out the ANC

I refer to “CEOs blast state’s inaction” (March 12). Yes, business has been busy trying to guide, encourage and support the ANC-led government from the early 1990s.

The tragedy is that the ANC has become stubborn and belligerent towards the very sectors of business and civil society that have been paying for increasing levels of incompetence accelerated by cadre deployment, corruption and ignorance as displayed by President Cyril Ramaphosa and the shrinking circle of competence among his ministers, senior bureaucrats and the civil service at large.

Business has been passive and complacent for too long. Boards and CEOs must spend time and money to call on South Africans to vote out the ANC and replace them with credible opposition parties that put the country first. They should become involved in every municipal by-election leading up to the 2024 general election. They can support, educate and inform their employees, customers and communities to vote for reputable opposition parties.

Businesspeople have a key role to play in their own, their employees’ and consumers’ best interests in turning the country into the prosperous society it can become. Business has a responsibility to alter the disastrous trajectory of our country. — Jeremy Wiley, on BusinessLIVE

I can’t understand how the reportedly ultra-smart businesspeople were not more outspoken much earlier. Everyone but them was voicing anxieties and grim predictions — just a few brave souls spoke out, including the CEOs of Sygnia and Sibanye.

It is too late now to be just voicing worries. Money should not have been offered until the government kept its side of the so-called social compact.

— sandra goldberg527, on TimesLIVE

These CEOs are about 20 years too late. Of course they are fed up. They gave Ramaphosa shares for nothing and made him rich. They financed his campaign to become ANC leader.

But he has turned out to be fickle and unreliable. The economy is in shreds while he dabbles in cattle and foreign currency.

He has been a bad investment for South African big business.

— Errol Price, on TimesLIVE

Ramaphosa not serving the people

Sam Mkokeli’s column “Everyone can see it: Ramaphosa is defeated” (March 12) refers. Is he failing or does he just not care? The man has no spine, let alone a conscience.

One thing for sure is that his agenda is not to serve the people of South Africa.

Even a person who’s never followed politics does now, and it’s just a circus.

— Nhlanhla Sibeko, on BusinessLIVE