DUMA GQUBULE: Load-shedding switches off SA’s growth hopes
During the first quarter there were 20 days of load-shedding at levels ranging from stage two to four
Spare a thought for President Cyril Ramaphosa. He has ticked most of the boxes of issues the business community and ratings agencies said he must address. Policy certainty. Business confidence. Structural reforms. But the economy is still in a mess. To create policy certainty in mining, the government caved in to the industry’s unreasonable demands around the sector’s empowerment charter. Yet then the industry shifted the goal posts with a new court case against the department of mineral resources. In his state of the nation address, Ramaphosa announced other allegedly growth-enhancing structural reforms, such as restructuring the electricity sector, speeding up the allocation of telecommunications spectrum, relaxing visa requirements and reviewing port, rail and electricity prices. However, SA’s GDP is set to decline again during the first quarter of 2019. This will be the third quarterly decline since the start of 2018. According to Nedbank’s economics department, growth prospect...
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