Key Points:
- South Africa is failing to achieve sustained high rates of economic growth we need to reduce unemployment and reach our development goals.
- The UNDP’s Human Development Index – a broad measure of quality of life – shows that the material quality of South Africans’ lives was overtaken by those of citizens of comparable middle-income developing countries in the last two decades of the 20th
- In a CDE Roundtable discussion, several obstacles to growth and creation in South Africa were identified: low investor confidence; difficulties in obtaining high-quality human capital; inappropriate labour and migration policies; inefficiencies in the central bureaucracy; service delivery capacity problems; inadequate infrastructure maintenance and investment; and tensions between government and business.
- Suggested solutions to these many and varied problems included: a smaller and more focused government agenda; deeper and better private-public relationships; a common vision for the country; and strategies to combat poverty directly.
- South Africa’s leaders have to believe that market-led development is the only way to create a better life for all. They must commit to market-led development, and structure every government policy and signal around that choice.
Press release: Why is South Africa failing to get the growth and jobs we need?
