SA is on the fast track to ruin, reaping the fruits of failed economic policy
With its future looking bleak, SA is burdened with a president who seems oblivious to the urgent need for change, writes Bloomberg in its editorial
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) just pointed out that "SA’s vulnerabilities have become more pronounced". That’s one way of putting it. A potentially prosperous and dynamic economy is on the fast track to ruin. Altering its course will take real political reform. Unemployment has risen five percentage points since 2008, to a hope-crushing 28%. The population is expanding faster than its economy, which lately has grown at less than half the rate of sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. And inequality is among the highest in the world. These are the fruits of failed economic policy. Yet far from grasping the need for change, at a recent conclave of the ANC, President Jacob Zuma championed ideas for entrenching his dominance and enriching his supporters. He’s trying to engineer the succession of his ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as head of the ANC. And he’s pushing his programme for "radical economic transformation" — a toxic brew of all-too-radical populist policies. Zuma wants, amo...
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