Zuma’s second term cost SA R470bn, laments economist Dennis Dykes
The economist says the country lost billions of rand due to corruption, maladministration and misguided policies
President Jacob Zuma's second term cost SA’s economy R470bn, Nedbank chief economist Dennis Dykes said in Business Day on Tuesday. “We have calculated that SA lost around R470bn of GDP stemming from the corruption, maladministration and misguided policies of the second Zuma administration starting in 2014,” Dykes said. There was an estimated loss in tax revenue of R140bn, which would have reduced the budget deficit in 2019 to about 2.4% of GDP compared with the projected 4% in the October medium-term budget statement, while government debt would now have been less than 49% of GDP versus 56% of GDP, or about R250bn lower, Dykes said. The amount lost in the latter half of Zuma’s term is bigger than Eskom’s debt. The embattled power utility is in a deep financial crisis, with a more than R419bn in debt that it is unable to service from its own revenue. “If government now had this extra latitude, Eskom’s debt overhang could more easily have been addressed,” he said. Nedbank examined the...
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