Our future is not literally in our hands. This somewhat alarming news can be allayed, to some degree, with the good news that our future is being sold to investors, hopefully of good reputation, by a group of upstanding South African public and private sector individuals.

The sales delegate in question includes the deputy Reserve Bank governor, Daniel Mminele, Nicky Newton-King, CEO of the JSE, Sim Tshabalala, CEO of Standard Bank, Brian Molefe of Transnet, Chris Griffith of Anglo American Platinum and Mark Lamberti of Old Mutual –led by the Minister of Finance, Nhlahla Nene.

The group attended the SA Tomorrow conference in New York this week with their MO being to sell South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP) to US investors.

JSE CEO, Newton-King, told the conference, “This is the second year of hosting the SA Tomorrow conference and we sincerely hope investors get first-hand understanding about opportunities that exist in South Africa as well as the rest of the African continent.

She added that the country’s economy had grown at a rate of 3.3% per year since the country’s first democratic elections.

“We have experienced the benefits of increased trade and investment flows and it has helped us reach a place where our country is in a better place than it was pre 1994. As South African business leaders we want to make sure that a clear message is delivered to the rest of the world in order to engage openly about the challenges our country still faces and how we plan to overcome them,” she said.

Newton-King went on to outline that the NDP is forged on a strong partnership between business and government.