Forty years ago, Colin Leys asked “how far the class that has the greatest interest in surmounting and resolving the problems confronting capitalist development … [has] identified these problems or shown itself able to tackle them?” An examination of the business response in four African countries (Kenya, Uganda, Botswana and South Africa) to two kinds of crises (HIV/AIS and political violence) provides surprising answers: African businesses can be key responders to crisis, on occasion responding well in advance of the state and in welfare-enhancing ways that assist the society more widely to resolve the underlying crisis. Large, home-grown, diversified business groups are prominent in the ranks of the constructive responders to crisis, acting in surprising and counterintuitive ways.