The new head of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), Thero Setiloane, has laid out his “beyond advocacy” vision for the organisation and its future engagements with government and other social partners, including organised labour.

The initial initiatives, which will be rolled out during 2012, will focus on the areas of education, unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, and corruption, where BLSA plans to harness the collective power of its members to make a “systemic impact”.

The organisation currently has 85 members, comprising the largest JSE-listed companies and multinationals, as well as some of the big State-owned companies operating within South Africa.

Chairperson Bobby Godsell says BLSA has already moved to endorse the Congress of South African Trade Union’s (Cosatu’s) Corruption Watch initiative, which has been launched as a new platform to support whistle blowing, as well as to shine a light on corruption and those who act corruptly.

In the area of education, BLSA will work with Cosatu and government in support of President Jacob Zuma’s call for teachers to spend a full seven hours a day teaching, while harnessing the R1.75-billion its members spend collectively in support of education to improve the teaching and learning experience.

However, the big business group will also continue with its traditional advocacy initiatives with immediate plans to make direct input on the proposed changes within the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Amendment Bill, as well as a possible new local business tax being proposed by the South African Local Government Association.

It is also preparing to speak out against a proposal to ban labour broking, which Godsell describes as being as “crazy” a notion as denying that there are abuses within the temporary employment environment.

Power price increases will also come under scrutiny, with BLSA now concerned that South Africa could “price itself out of competitiveness”.

However, Setiloane stresses that as much effort would be given to supporting government and other social partners in ways that he hopes will provide better visibility of business’ societal value.

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