How Business Can Partner Effectively with the State

The success or failure of South Africa hinges to a considerable degree on state-business relations. Currently, they are poor and we are failing as a state. We cannot afford to fail, but reversing our national decline will require a new configuration of the relationship between the public and private sector. De facto, this is already happening, with the private sector taking on a greater responsibility for the delivery of the basic services the state sector has simply abrogated and abandoned. Education, security, transport and health are four cardinal pillars of responsibility of any functioning state and yet, the South African private sector is increasingly delivering these services to a greater number of citizens. The provision of clean energy will be next private sector deliverable.