Why isn’t South Africa’s economy growing as quickly as it should be?
At the investment conference last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa informed attendees and media that local and foreign businesses were running to invest in SA.
Business Day contends that a few recent events have indicated otherwise.
Massyn Vervoer, a long-haul transport company said last week “that it would close its entire SA logistics operation due to the market conditions in the road freight industry”.
Bell Equipment, a manufacturing company wants to move more of its manufacturing to the north, away from South Africa.
Ramaphosa’s focus should be placed on what all businesses need, more electricity.
As South Africa’s population grows, the country’s economic growth will be less than 2% a year for the foreseeable future. This isn’t enough to keep unemployment from rising because of the country’s population growth rate.
“The lack of available power is probably the single largest cap on SA’s growth, not to mention new investment. Yet, six years after Ramaphosa promised that load-shedding would be gone, SA is still gasping for power as Eskom lurches from outage to outage.
According to Business Day, among the most important things South Africa needs is a state that is honest and doesn’t carry around any ideological baggage, like a dislike of private capital and expertise and a distrust of big business.
Here’s a roundup of interesting opinions, analyses, and editorials:
Investment pledges? No, business needs electricity – Business Day
When a joke is not a joke: Why DA councillor’s comment was racist – News24 (for subscribers)
Let’s level the playing field and get ordinary investors back into the public market – Daily Maverick
SA Reserve Bank’s bold step on financial emigration is trickier than first thought – Daily Maverick
Electricity economics is not intuitive to nonexperts – Business Day
How Mlambo, Zondo dismantled the ‘anti-transformation’ attack on the Constitution – News24 (for subscribers)
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