Johannesburg – Leaders in society, established business, the government and labour have often been accused of not playing their part in working together to find solutions for a country that has been stumbling over its own feet for the past decade.
This past Monday, many schools were meant to resume classes but were simply not ready to open for grades seven and twelve as required, and schoolchildren have to wait another week to get back to school.
Chief Executive of Business Leadership South Africa Busi Mavuso says the delay for public schools seems to be a procurement process gone wrong. The country saw protests in some provinces by local suppliers who wanted to provide protective equipment at schools, blocking the delivery of the protective equipment at schools.
Local suppliers were concerned about the role Bidvest was playing in the sanitation of schools across the country, with others questioning why small businesses were not given special preference for this.
Mavuso reiterated that what is important is that business needs to be allowed space to participate meaningfully as a stakeholder in the country and to do something because it is the right thing to do without benefiting in any material way.
