Mcebisi Jonas, the former deputy minister of finance, gave the keynote address at the recent Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Directors Event, attended by some of SA’s leading personalities in government, business and civil society. Jonas presented a Swot analysis of SA, looking at its strengths and weaknesses. He pointed out that the economy was in a period of low growth and in recession after the economy contracted for two successive quarters. Mining and agriculture grew as a result of global economic growth and the end of the drought of the past year. However, the trade sector had contracted by 5.9% and people were spending less on goods and services such as food, clothing, restaurants and hotels. Jonas says the low growth is not cyclical, but structural, with the economy having grown by just 1% since 1990, whereas the whole of emerging Asia has grown by 7% over the same period. “Why is SA not growing at the same rate as other developing economies, especially since we have the infr...
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