KHAYA SITHOLE: Instead of juicy low-hanging fruit, grapes of wrath
SA needed to secure certain conditions to attract foreign investment, but it has been dismally failed by our politicians
Two years ago, in the week of the 79th anniversary of the publication of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed five investment envoys whose primary responsibility was to become the nation’s salesmen in the various international investor markets.
The five — appointed on the basis of their skills and accomplishments across business and the public service — had a target of $100bn to be raised in five years. Such investments, as the theory went, would go a long way towards addressing the economic stagnation of our times. Their focus on external investments was influenced by the reality that in the 10 years leading up to 2017 foreign direct investment (FDI) in SA had declined by 77%. The pursuit of foreign capital was therefore an important part of “reigniting the growth momentum” of the economy as articulated by the SA team at Davos in 2018...
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