News24 | Government-Business Partnership shoots for 1 million jobs, 3% growth

• President Cyril Ramaphosa urged businesses to support transformation as an economic necessity, speaking at the Phase 3 launch of the Government-Business Partnership in Sandton.
• Phase 3 aims for 3%+ growth and one million jobs by 2030, focusing on mining, tourism, infrastructure, agriculture and saving the City of Johannesburg.
• Ramaphosa emphasised transparency, accountability and irreversible reforms to address energy, transport, logistics and corruption challenges.

After successfully ending load shedding and getting the country off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, the South African government and its business partners will now look to bolster implementation in Phase 3 of the Government-Business Partnership.

The next phase is focused on urgently addressing the crisis of low growth and unemployment, aiming for 3%+ growth and one million additional jobs by 2030, President Cyril Ramaphosa told CEOs and other role-players when he delivered the keynote address at the launch at Summer Place in Sandton on Thursday.

South Africa has recorded 455 consecutive days without load shedding as of August 2026, with the last instance occurring on 16 May 2025. Eskom also reported its strongest year-to-date energy availability factor (EAF) – the proportion of its plants in good working order – in six years, reaching 67.55%, while unplanned outages have been nearly halved year-on-year, declining by more than 5GW, according to reports.

The success of the partnership has also been evident in improved traffic at ports, with the Port of Durban recognised by the World Bank and S&P as the world’s most improved port in 2026, based on 2025 performance data.

At the time that the partnership was initiated, SA faced multiple crises in the economy with failing energy and logistics infrastructure. Ramaphosa was frank that this had been “a moment of great difficulty”.

Ramaphosa said:

Rolling load shedding was causing immense damage to businesses, households and public institutions. The deteriorating performance of our railways and ports was constraining exports, disrupting supply chains and weakening our competitiveness.

He said South Africa’s greylisting by the FATF had exposed serious weaknesses in the financial controls for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

“Confidence in the country’s economic prospects was under severe strain. Government and business, therefore, came together around a common purpose: to address the most immediate constraints on growth and to restore confidence in South Africa’s future,” Ramaphosa said.

The president said that since then, the partnership had become an instrument of inclusive growth and economic transformation.

READ | Business-govt groups rescued Eskom, Transnet – will they survive?

But while there have been tangible successes, economic growth – at 1.1% in 2025 – has been elusive, unemployment has deteriorated to 33.6%, and confidence has not been restored.

“This partnership has gone through a number of distinct but interlinked and interrelated phases. Phase 1 was about stabilisation. Phase 2 was about reform. Phase 3 must be about growth.”

The next phase, which will introduce new sectors, is designed to convert the momentum into faster growth and job creation.

Phase 3 will focus on three goals: growth, job creation and business and investor confidence.

The new sectors that will be the focus include: mining, tourism, infrastructure and agriculture. These are the drivers of employment in the economy and have the most potential to produce job-rich growth.

Confidence-enhancing drivers, such as reducing crime and corruption and youth unemployment, which have been priorities since Phase 1, will remain areas of work.

READ | Business-government partnership shifts focus from energy to crime

Another new area added to the mix will be fixing the City of Johannesburg.

Ramaphosa also called on businesses to support transformation, “not merely as a compliance requirement but as an economic necessity”.

“As confidence improves, South African businesses must invest. We’ve often heard that businesses [have] billions and billions to invest, and now, as we strengthen this partnership and move into Phase 3, we need to see that happen,” Ramaphosa said.

He said businesses must expand production, open new markets, develop local supplies and create jobs.

“And for me, transformation is really the key, and we are seeing transformation in a number of industries, and in others moving rather slowly,” Ramaphosa said.

He said these were industries where women and black people were still few in number, particularly in the key echelons of various enterprises.

“We must therefore, as we strengthen this partnership, be able to focus on those areas which some may regard as soft issues, but they are important issues.”

Ramaphosa added:

An economy cannot reach its full potential while the majority of its people remain excluded from opportunity and decision-making as well as ownership.

The launch of Phase 3 has been three years in the making.

In June 2023, Ramaphosa and organised business – represented by Business Unity South Africa and its implementation arm, Business for South Africa – formally launched a collaborative partnership to tackle three national crises simultaneously: energy, transport and logistics, and crime and corruption.

President @CyrilRamaphosa addresses the launch of Phase 3 of the Government-Business Partnership in Johannesburg.

The third phase expands the Partnership’s collaboration into tourism, agriculture and agro-processing, and mining, while continuing work to advance reforms in… pic.twitter.com/E5QRcBF1mB

— The Presidency 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) August 20, 2026

By August 2023, over 115 CEOs had signed a pledge of support, growing to over 135 by year-end. The premise was simple: businesses would provide funding, technical expertise and private sector discipline, while government would provide the institutional framework and political will to unblock structural bottlenecks.

At the time, Ramaphosa also faced criticism for “cosying up” to business.

On Thursday, he addressed the criticism head-on.

Ramaphosa said:

There has been criticism in the past that your closer working with business means that you could easily be captured. And the more we work transparently, the more we are able to hold each other accountable, the better our people will really fully believe in the efficacy of this partnership.

He said there can be no special favours, no privileged access and no weakening of the state’s regulatory responsibility.

“These are the values and principles that we need to adhere to. The credibility of this partnership depends not only on what it delivers but on how it delivers,” Ramaphosa said.

He assured those in the room and South Africans that the reforms that had been introduced would be so deeply embedded that they could not be reversed.

“People have been concerned about whether these reforms are reversible. Will they be reversed one day when something happens? My answer is no. They are not going to be reversed.

“You know what I mean when I say when something happens,” Ramaphosa added.

He said the next phase must be defined by disciplined execution.