Busi Mavuso

Busi Mavuso is the chief executive officer of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), one of the country's largest business lobby groups, representing chief executives of major South African companies. She writes a widely followed weekly newsletter commenting on economic policy, reform implementation and governance, and is a vocal advocate for structural reform of South Africa's electricity and logistics sectors through Operation Vulindlela and the Government-Business Partnership, which brings together more than thirty CEOs with government to pursue economic growth above 3% a year and job creation targets. She has pushed for South Africa to enshrine reform gains in law so they outlast the presidency of Cyril Ramaphosa, and has criticised the pace of Eskom's unbundling, delays to the South African Wholesale Electricity Market and stalled rail reforms at Transnet. Mavuso has also been outspoken on municipal failure, particularly in Johannesburg, describing the city as poorly managed rather than under-resourced, and has called for government to tackle corruption and criminal syndicates embedded in municipal procurement. On trade policy, she has criticised the absence of a coherent South African trade strategy, highlighting the risks of agreements such as the proposed deepening of ties with Brazil and the impact of a surge in Chinese manufactured imports on local industry. Through BLSA's Reform Tracker, she regularly assesses government's progress against commitments in energy, logistics, public finance and governance reform.