Belief in redistribution has devastated growth
Politically opportunistic quotas impede prospects for broad prosperity
Fiscal repackaging along with jobs and investment summits are mostly political manoeuvres. SA’s binding constraints can be traced to policies that are incompatible with global opportunities. If internationally proven policies were adopted, stimulus would be unnecessary as investments and job growth would surge. President Cyril Ramaphosa has joined many disparate voices lamenting inadequate demand while yearning for improved sentiment. Such views are misplaced. SA’s purchasing power is woefully inadequate relative to the nation’s poverty burden. That is, most South Africans will remain poor — risking political, and thus economic, instability — unless the country’s long-term growth rate is sharply improved. That can only happen through policy pivots sufficient to surge value-added exports. Currently, a radical fringe party such as the EFF can hush constructive discourse with chants of “white monopoly capital” and “expropriation without compensation” because the intersection where pow...
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