the president’s advisors discuss what it will take

At the end of 2021, South Africa recorded its highest unemployment rate since the dawn of democracy, at 35.3%. The figure has marginally dropped but there is still concern about how the country will tackle this issue. Dori Posel spoke to Trudi Makhaya, economic advisor to South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, as well as Kenneth Creamer and Liberty Mncube, who are on the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, about unemployment, job creation, the informal sector and the country’s challenges with excessive market power.

Dori Posel: South Africa has not been very successful in chipping away at a very high rate of unemployment. What could help?

Kenneth Creamer: There is a strong correlation between growth and job creation. The question is, why doesn’t South Africa have enough growth? I would say that there are historical and current factors.

Historically, colonialism and apartheid have meant that the country’s capital markets, our capital formation, has been distorted, and infrastructure investment has been distorted. If you look around the country, you can see that people in areas that were designated as “bantustans” under apartheid still don’t have the same level of health, education, and access to security services.

And capital formation itself was pretty much linked to mining. There was some diversification, but the country’s industrial policy was stunted and shaped in a way that didn’t create enough jobs.

The current reasons include…