Lukanyo Mnyanda hit the nail on the head when he likened the South African visa regime to the Brexit self-harm. Other than a highly regulated market, poor policy implementation, corruption, and high political risk, a major hindrance to rapid economic growth in SA is the size of the domestic market that would propel its manufacturing sector. Statistics SA suggests our population is growing slowly compared with most African countries. This despite drops in the child mortality rate and HIV/AIDS-related deaths. Developing countries such as China and India do well in manufacturing because they have large populations. Nigeria’s population gives it huge buying power. If SA wants to increase its domestic market we should abandon our stringent visa regime. We should also tighten our porous borders while allowing most Africans to enter SA legally to seek opportunities. There should be concerted efforts to increase intra-Africa trading — something SA should looked into before joining Brics. Dr...
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