Not defending the GNU or President Ramaphosa at all, but the conversation needs proper context because South Africa’s growth problem didn’t start with this administration, and it won’t magically end with it either. Our economy is trapped in a structural and institutional setup that goes way deeper than a single president or any ANC-led government that doesn’t fully surrender to the status quo inside the state machinery as how the Mbeki presidency did in my zero and honest opinion.
People underestimate how much power the technocrats in Treasury and the broader bureaucratic system have. Their entire policy outlook is built on conservative, neoliberal assumptions meant to keep markets calm, investors comfortable, and the economic “narrative” aligned with what the 1% prefers or certainly benefits the most. Whenever any elected leadership tries to shift towards a developmental state so to actually tackle poverty, unemployment, inequality and change the structure of the economy in favour of the majority whom remains to be Africans in particular and Blacks in general; the bureaucratic system aggressively pushes back hard. Growth itself thereof becomes a weapon. It’s really a perception game. The moment leadership attempts to move against entrenched interests or introduce progressive reforms, the same institutional backbone signals “instability,” ratings agencies react, business confidence drops, and suddenly the pressure mounts until government retreats back to the narrow policy corridor preferred by Treasury and organised capital.
So yes it is true that growth is below 1%. But that’s not just on the GNU. It’s the accumulated effect of a decade-plus of policy being locked into a model that was never designed to transform the economy, only to maintain “stability.” Until SA breaks out of that institutional chokehold and our political and elected leadership finds the revolutionary backbone so to adopt a serious developmental-state programme, with political will strong enough to withstand the pushback; we won’t see sustained change in unemployment, poverty or inequality.
That’s why in my perspective there’s “no sign yet.” Not because change is impossible, but because the system is still running on the same old logic that keeps the majority excluded and reins in any attempt at meaningful structural reform.
@Musa_Khawula R1,42 Billion vs R1,42 Million is a huge difference, the story is true but the details are misleading. Report correctly and do not inflate the details.