Policy weakness in SA is a critical constraint: there is no plethora of workable policies
SA should not resign itself to corruption just because it is possible to grow with moderate corruption, but nor should investors believe were it not for corruption, SA would be growing near 5%
SA is presently in the grip of corruption hypervigilance. When the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) briefed foreign investors in London and New York in September, concern about corruption featured prominently. With GDP growth below 1%, unemployment at a 14-year peak and the number of people on social welfare exceeding those in employment, the opportunity costs of corruption could not be starker. The risk, however, is that corruption vigilance masks the equal, if not overriding, need for policy reform. For many of SA’s political parties providing long-term policy direction has been overshadowed by the corruption narrative. The ANC has drifted between ideas of the developmental state, radical economic transformation and inclusive growth, but the electoral battle in December does not centre on any of these ideas. One would be hard-pressed to define the differences in policy thinking between any of the candidates for the ANC presidency. Similarly the DA’s message, as the ...
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