South African business leader Mteto Nyati offers a blunt assessment of the nation’s economic drift: without a clear destination, any road will lead nowhere. To the 61-year-old executive, the Government of National Unity presented an opening to mend broken systems and ignite growth, but cabinet ministers pursuing separate agendas are allowing the moment to slip away.

South Africa must establish itself as the preferred continental gateway for multinationals seeking scale across Africa, Nyati argues. The pitch rests on practical reality rather than rhetoric: pairing the country’s industrial foundation, financial architecture, and corporate expertise to build Africa’s premier hub for global enterprise, regional treasuries, and commercial expansion.

Defining a clear destination

His perspective crystallized during a visit to Hong Kong, where he addressed the Belt and Road Summit at the invitation of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. What resonated with him was the territory’s identity as a super-connector and super-enabler, a vision against which every administrative choice and regulatory policy is measured.

By contrast, Nyati points to South Africa’s fifteen years of weak output, suppressed by low domestic savings and investment. Past planning frameworks like the Reconstruction and Development Programme and the National Development Plan failed to establish a destination that everyone can hold themselves to, leaving policy without a central anchor.

The goal he envisions is straightforward: make South Africa the regional home for world companies. Global firms should place their African headquarters, talent, and growth capital here because operating out of the country is simply easier, faster, and far more predictable than doing business anywhere else on the continent.

Stripping away bureaucratic friction

To get there, Nyati insists government departments must adopt a single operating standard: does a decision make it easier or harder for a serious company to base itself here? Winning international headquarters happens by removing friction, clearing permits in days, and ensuring rail networks and ocean ports move cargo without delay.

That discipline extends to keeping electricity flowing, processing visas promptly, securing safety for personnel, resolving commercial disputes before opportunities vanish, and maintaining regulatory rules stable enough for a ten-year investment. The underlying assets—strategic location, liquid capital markets, and executive skills—already exist, but leaders lack the discipline to make them usable.

Removing friction serves domestic employers just as much as foreign corporations, because policy cannot favor multinational firms without lifting South African enterprises. With national unemployment above 34 percent, competitive labour becomes part of the offer rather than a side issue, echoing how China understood the power of deliberately attracting investment.

Proven gains under pressure

The governance challenge comes at a pivotal point in Nyati’s corporate career. He will remain chairperson of state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. for an additional three years, with his extended tenure taking effect Nov. 1, 2026, following substantial turnarounds in board oversight, operational reliability, and unbundling.

Nyati, who previously served as chief executive officer of MTN South Africa and technology group Altron, brings over 25 years of corporate experience across telecommunications, media, and technology. The Yale World Fellow and author of “Betting on a Darkie” also chairs BSG and founded private equity vehicle Wazo Investments.

Under his board tenure, Eskom logged 500 consecutive days without load-shedding, marking its longest run of uninterrupted power supply since the crisis intensified. The turnaround reflects its Generation Recovery Plan, which returned 6,461 megawatts of generating capacity to the grid over three years while restoring wider investor confidence.

Slashing high generation costs

Operational indicators confirm steady fleet recovery. The financial year-to-date Energy Availability Factor rose to 68.06 percent, a six-year high, while weekly availability reached 70.44 percent between Sept. 18 and 24. Unplanned outages fell 21 percent to 7,622 megawatts, with over half the coal fleet operating above 70 percent availability.

The power turnaround sharply curtailed emergency expenses. Eskom’s diesel spending fell 80.56 percent, or R4.78 billion ($291.4 million), settling at R1.16 billion ($70.7 million) between April 1 and Sept. 24, from R5.94 billion ($362.1 million) a year earlier, alongside 6,571 megawatts kept safe in cold reserve.

Open-cycle gas turbine generation dropped 84.92 percent to 151.14 gigawatt-hours over the same period, while annual diesel expenditure for the year ended March 2026 was R23 billion ($1.4 billion) lower than in March 2023. For Nyati, that operational discipline proves what focused execution can achieve across South Africa.