GARSEN SUBRAMONEY: How land expropriation will choke the economy
'It will shatter the trust the world has in SA’s aspirations to be a modernising state'
EXTRACT
It’s an issue that, no matter how it is spun, Ramaphosa had to take away from the red-clad populists. They were scoring political points from EWC. In late February, he took ownership. If he hadn’t the ANC would have been further weakened come the next elections.
Nothing balms the pained poor like populist promises.
The causal link between the timing of the new decline in the rand and when he took ownership of EWC cannot escape him. Has EWC stained the allure of “Ramaphoria” or is this just a mild sign of displeasure on the part of investors? Each time he doesn’t rebuke EWC, investors panic, despite his assurances that EWC can be implemented without damage.
I wonder what goes through the mind of President Cyril Ramaphosa each morning. I imagine him sipping coffee, planning how he’s going to get the country back to work. He must shake his head, marvelling in revulsion at the scale of the plundering that his predecessor wreaked on us. The level of their depravity, the stuff of myth and legend. The president knows that all indicators show the country is facing an uphill path to recovery. In the continent’s most developed country, unemployment is at 27.2%, the highest in the world.The average family, across racial lines, is feeling the hurt of the currency falling 20% against the US dollar in the past five months. Filling the family car or taking public transport is painful. The increases in VAT and luxury goods duties strip the joy from family time. State-owned entities such as Eskom, drained by state capture and maladministration, reach further into the family purse. The poorest families (55% of the population) are being punished by a de...
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