March 2016

The big news from last month was of course President Zuma’s State of the Nation Address (SONA). There were big announcements in the business sector and when Finance Minister followed up with a budget speech that also announced spending, it looks like we have much to look forward to as we move through 2016 – despite the ongoing economic uncertainty.

Importantly, big spending was announced for ports, public sector infrastructure, energy, roads and pharmaceuticals – the government even announced the formation of a state owned pharmaceutical company, Ketlaphela, which will provide anti-retroviral drugs to the Department of Health. There will be an investment of R7 billion into new port facilities, a R100 million investment to boost local tourism, a R5 billion fund to support businesses effected by the global slowdown, millions to support businesses effected by the droughts, and R865.4 billion over three years for public sector infrastructure – R250 billion of which will be spent on completing the Medupi, Ingula and Kusile power plants.

The sceptics were of course out in force, claiming that the investments will never be realised of that they are unaffordable, but we remain positive and we are looking forward to seeing money flowing through the economy.

This will help the growth of modern businesses; companies like Ericsson who take our lead feature spot this month. This innovative Scandinavian business has been doing great work in SA and Africa more widely for a number of years and this looks set to continue as the company experiments with 5G technology.

As always, we want to hear from you. If you have a story, get in touch: @EnterpriseAfri1