US Investors Call For Policy Certainty

US investors seem less concerned about land reform and more concerned about policy direction, and how South Africa plans to weather the expected imminent correction in the global economy.

- Peter Fabricius

President Cyril Ramaphosa focused heavily on justifying land reform on his recent trip to the US to drum up investment and participate in the United Nations General Assembly debate. US President Donald Trump’s recent hostile tweet slamming Pretoria for “seizing land from white farmers” and neglecting “large scale killing of farmers” was very much on his mind.

But with his big investment summit coming up at the end of October, Ramaphosa should be focusing more on reassuring potential investors that South Africa will protect their intellectual property and on informing them where he intends taking the Gupta-tainted state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

These were some of the pointers from US business leaders Ramaphosa engaged with in New York.

The business leaders were all impressed with Ramaphosa personally and felt he was much more in tune with their needs than his predecessor Jacob Zuma had been.

“Cyril Ramaphosa did very well … His presentation was good. He came across as genuine, humble and a good listener. He answered every question one by one as it came up,” said one of the CEOs following a closed, off-the-record meeting Ramaphosa had with business bosses in New York.

“Several companies noted they’d like to expand their operations in SA, either as a domestic market, or regionally, using SA as a base,” another executive said. “They effectively asked for more engagement to better understand SA’s plans in some key sectors to aid their decisions – and Cyril responded positively in each case, with studied, substantive reactions, and pointing to a team member to follow up.”

Ramaphosa had also invited companies to consider taking specific steps to increase their investment, or partner with South African government entities or private companies to explore new opportunities.