South African Business 2019 edition

AN ECONOMIC OVERVIEW OF

AN ECONOMIC OVERVIEW OF SOUTH AFRICA A time of considerable political and economic uncertainty came to an end in February 2018 with the resignation of President Jacob Zuma and the election of President Cyril Ramaphosa. By John Young Serious allegations of fraud and looting of state resources have been levelled against many people in the public and private sectors and a series of commissions of enquiry has been launched by the new administration. South Africa’s fourth president in the democratic era has been secretary-general of the country’s most important union and the biggest political party, a leader of negotiations that led to democracy, chairman of the Constitutional Assembly that wrote the new Constitution and a successful businessman. New ministers of state have been appointed, boards of state-owned-entities (SOEs) have been replaced and promises have been made that corruption will no longer be tolerated in state departments. International ratings agencies seemed willing to hold off on downgrades of the country’s investment status in response to the changing of the political guard. The fact that Ramaphosa is also a former coleader of the National Development Plan (NDP) is also good news for the possibility of more certainty in policy-making. The NDP is a detailed blueprint for how to move the country forward. Part of that plan entails setting up deliverable schemes, such as the plan called Strategic Integrated Projects. One of Ramaphosa’s first actions was to appoint a five-person investment panel whose task is to persuade international decision-makers to invest 0-billion in South Africa Inc. Coordinated by former