A COUNTRY IN CRISIS
Business’s path of least resistance to government is a recipe for disaster
The ice beneath South Africans’ collective feet is getting thinner by the day. The country’s public finances are as precarious as they have ever been and, even before the economy began shrinking, hundreds of thousands of people were joining the unemployment queue every year. Confronted by the sheer misery of the status quo, the government has resorted to increasingly populist, fiscally unsustainable policies: higher public sector wages, fee-free higher education, uncosted proposals for national health insurance, and an unwarranted resort to amending constitutionally protected rights that has undermined investor confidence yet stands little chance of delivering what its advocates say they want. Add rising social tensions and increased emigration by skilled South Africans, and the challenges we face now seem deeper than any since 1994. In this context, it is appropriate to ask where SA’s business leaders and organisations are hiding. They appear to be missing in action.
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