Tag: South Africa

The African National Congress (ANC) is imploding. The productive energies of private enterprise have long been suppressed under the party’s hegemonic rule. Policy uncertainty, and simply bad policy, has kept South Africa back from fulfilling its full economic potential.

Read our exclusive cover story titled A hegemon crumbles! - will the ANC survive after decades of parasitic policies? by Martin van Staden, Deputy Head of Policy Research, South African Institute of Race Relations, plus a host of other topical management articles written by professionals, consultants and academics in the April/May 2023 edition.

If jobseekers in South Africa currently had the right to freely enter voluntary contracts with employers at wages and on conditions acceptable to both parties, the country would not have mass unemployment. Figures recently released by Statistics SA confirm the statement by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that at 29.8 percent South Africa had the highest unemployment rate in the world. At 4.9 percent the USA had the lowest rate.

Modern day states are characterised by an implicit admission that everyone who is living under them, consents to be governed by them. Yet when one looks at the world, in any society, there is always a large portion of people who not only disagree with authority but actively did not consent to it by voting differently or not at all. Are the views of these people not important because they represent a minority?

Strong revenue growth enabled headline earnings growth of 20% to R14bn, an increase in ROE to 14% and a CET1 ratio of 14%

Our reality is that our realities are unfixable in the short term as ideologies only change when supporters die of old age or in a revolution.

2023 is poised to be a year of accelerated change in and for South Africa. As the country heads toward a general election in 2024, a sea-change is on the cards. The African National Congress (ANC) are by all accounts on the point of obtaining below 50% at the voting booth; some estimates have the party even under 45%.

New National Minimum Wage (NMW) hourly rates, which will have a significant impact on labour-intensive industries, were published by the Minister of Employment on 21 February 2023, in line with section 6(5) of the National Minimum Wage Act. They will take effect from 1 March 2023.

The National Budget delivered by South Africa’s Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, showed that government is making some significant financial commitments to restore Eskom to viability and maintain social grants. But with GDP growth projected at 1.4% on average from 2023 to 2025, and a potential tapering-off of the commodities boom over the medium term, how will government fund these commitments?

The 2023 Budget was tabled to Parliament on 22 February 2023 by South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.