The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) says there needs to be a shift in the way government operates and calling for more competent role players at all levels.
This comes as the country’s businesses experience losses estimated at billions of rands due to the current riots and looting across the country.
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal are the most hard-hit provinces.
The unrest has now resulted in temporary food insecurity as the remaining retailers run out of stock.
SACCI CEO, Alan Mukoki says appointments to critical roles in the public sector needed to be reviewed.
“Often in government itself, we get a culture where the minister this, honourable minister this is preventing an honest conversation even hierarchically in that particular situation. Because people are scared of their own ministers, the ministers are scared of the president, the president is scared of the party and that culture has to change because if you don’t change the culture where people can speak truth to each other and they can differ and the brightest ideas come up,” says Mukoki.
The Watchdog: SACCI CEO Alan Mukoki speaks to SABC News following violent protests in South Africa
In a media briefing on Wednesday, the acting Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshaveni, assured South Africans that there were no immediate threats of food shortages in the country amid the looting and destruction of property in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
While incidents of looting were reported on Thursday, the situation is slowly returning to normal as some community members have started cleaning up shoppings hubs that were affected by the looting.
The riots erupted after the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma for violating a Constitutional Court order.
Impact of SA riots on supply chain
The collapse of the supply of all goods as a result of lootings: Gavin Kelly
