Posted inBusinessNews/Politics

What’s needed to lift investor confidence

South Africa faces a perilous and uncertain future because of stagnant growth, policy uncertainty and ideological gridlock, high unemployment, inequality and poverty. Social tension is very high as indicated by a high frequency of service-delivery protests across the country and an increasing level of anti-social behaviour that morphs into the current high-crime rate. The frequent […]

Posted inNews/Politics

The realities of social mobility in South Africa

South Africa – the African continent’s largest economy and its only G-20 member – continues to display strikingly high and persistent inequality which has led to high levels of marginalisation for an upper middle-income country. The stark and at times obscene contradictions between rich and poor – a legacy of our country’s apartheid past – […]

Posted inGeneral

Poor policy slows SA’s growth

James Carvelle, Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign strategist, coined a phrase that remains pertinent the world over, especially in South Africa, when he said “the economy, stupid”. As we now paraphrase Carvelle’s phrase, “it is [indeed] the economy, stupid”. In the case of South Africa, I insist that it is both the economy, and more fundamentally, […]

Posted inNews/Politics

Africa’s 2040 employment problem

Over the last decade, six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies were in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, there are troubling indicators that this exponential growth has not resulted in robust growth of “good” jobs. In other words, those offering higher wages and better working conditions – especially for the young. Exacerbated by a delayed demographic transition, […]

Posted inBusinessNews/Politics

South Africa’s development paradigm

Development policy in post-apartheid South Africa has traditionally focused on the debate over the superiority of either state-controlled or market systems. Like many other developing world countries before it, South Africa expected that globalisation and the replacement of traditional industries by modern sectors would become a panacea for economic development in our country. Based on […]