More than a decade has passed since the last infrastructure-led boom in the SA economy, one fuelled by the need to prepare for the Fifa World Cup and to urgently begin expanding our electricity generation capacity.
By Busi Mavuso
Taking over the political oversight of ailing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as Eskom was always going to be one of the more difficult jobs in the administration of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
While we entered 2021 under the cloud of a second wave of Covid-19 infections, the economic news so far has been much better than most of us could have expected.
We can’t rebuild the capacity of the state without holding political office bearers and public servants to greater levels of accountability.
If South Africa is to fully recover from the effects of Covid-19 and the economy is recast for inclusive growth, we are going to need a capable state.
Of all the structural fault-lines in the SA economy, the decades-long rise in joblessness has been our most difficult to overcome. The pandemic has worsened the jobs crisis, as was showed this week.
What a “stark” difference a few months can make in the life and finances of a country. At the tail-end of last year, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, sounded alarm bells about the possible deterioration in the fiscus to levels comparable to that of Argentina, the poster child of economic ruin over the past three decades.
This week’s budget speech should provide for surprisingly better headlines about the short-term state of the fiscus compared to previous expectations as higher growth from the bullish commodity markets boosts state coffers, making it unlikely that finance minister Tito Mboweni will have to increase taxes.
Some political players are resorting to conspiracy theories to pin the blame for the poor investment sentiment towards South Africa on investors.
By Busi Mavuso
From every vantage point, the state of the nation address in 2021 was the most difficult for any modern-day SA president given the unusual challenges.
BLSA agrees with President Cyril Ramaphosa on his four overriding priorities: defeat Covid; accelerate the economic recovery; accelerate economic reform to drive inclusive growth; and fight corruption. A determined focus on those priorities will help to address an array of the country’s problems.
This year’s state of the nation address (Sona) takes on a much different hue from those of yesteryear for one important fact: we’ve all been disrupted.