South Africa should move away from being fixated on the views of ratings agencies and rather focus on a sustainable and inclusive growth path to address the three critical challenges, said Dr Cas Coovadia, MD of the Banking Association of South Africa.

Coovadia was the keynote speaker at a dialogue event hosted by the Western Cape Business Opportunities Forum (Wecbof) in Cape Town.

“Yes, it’s important to avoid a ratings downgrade in December and we may just do that. But what do we do after that?”

Coovadia lauded the formation of the CEO Initiative, following the dismissal of former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene on 9 December 2015. “The most positive thing that came out of that was that business and government came together as SA Inc. for the first time.”

The CEO Initiative led to the disappearance of the line between workplace, business, the economy and society, Coovadia said. Business realised that the alleviation of poverty for example is not government’s problem. “You can’t reach the growth rates we need and need to sustain if you have 26% to 30% unemployment.”

He appealed to business to refrain from being apolitical. “I’m not saying you should be party-political, but we can’t afford to be apolitical in this country.”

He cited the #feesmustfall campaign – a student led protest movement that began in mid October 2015 in response to an increase in fees at universities – as an example.

“It’s in our interest that universities are functioning well.”

Coovadia said a year ago he would have been reluctant to speak out on what’s happening in state institutions. “But today we say if we can’t get it right we can’t do business.

“However, it’s also important for us as business to conduct ourselves differently and put on the table what our agenda is and that is to put national interest first. The problem is not that we don’t talk in this country, but that we’re talking from our little boxes and comfort zones. Nobody puts national interest on the agenda.”