In African Arguments Magnus Taylor reports on a recent speech by Moeletsi Mbeki in which he states:
South Africa may have “a mushrooming middle class” but this is not an entrepreneurial body of people. It is a group that has relied upon inflated public sector salaries and a transfer of existing industrial wealth (rather than the creation of more.) Very little is now being invested in the economy – particularly in infrastructure such as power generation and transport. The productive sector is also shrinking – footwear, clothing and textiles cannot compete with cheaper Asian imports. Unemployment stands at a rising 33 percent and whilst the life of the poor is getting ever more precarious, the political elite just gets richer. South Africa has become an unstable society, where the government – in the guise of the re-militarised police – has been forced to use violence in order to maintain its control.A frozen economy:
South African economy became frozen in the state it existed in 1990, which was essentially what it was in 1870. An economy frozen in time cannot, however, stand competition with more entrepreneurial rising powers (particularly those in Asia.)...The public sector has become a cash-cow for a political elite rather than a provider of good public services. For these reasons, the economy is growing at an anaemic 2 – 3 percent per year, which explains the growing instability and emergence of demagogic populist figures like Julius Malema.More here
Mbeki finished on a gloomy note: “The ANC, like the South African economy, is frozen…and its political power is unsustainable.”