South Africa is stuck in a bog of low economic growth

South Africa’s GDP contracts 0.2% in second quarter of 2026

“We need much faster and bolder economic reform to turn South Africa’s economy around.”

That is a truism very few leaders, economists, analysts and other commentators, would quarrel with. And it has been repeated many times – for decades – at times like this week when Statistics South Africa releases some harsh indicators about the state of our economy. What is deplorably remarkable about this call for faster and bolder economic reform this time is that it comes from with in government instead of outside.

The latest rendition of the statement was delivered by Democratic Alliance leader Geordin Hill-Lewis following news that our country’s economic recovery had hit a snag in the second quarter of this year.

Hill-Lewis correctly said the latest figures were an urgent warning that the government’s current approach to reform was not producing the desired results.

What the figures are telling ordinary citizens – as if they needed confirmation – is that the so-called Government of National Unity is not working together with a focus on the national goals its leaders promised to focus on. Instead of focusing on growth and jobs, the parties in the governing coalition keep dilly dallying and pointing fingers at each other, and – since we are in the silly season of elections – using every opportunity to score political points against each other and serving their parties’ individual interests.

That economic growth does not always come with improvement in employment figures and a reduction in poverty and economic hardship is a well-known fact about our country. However, without growth in the economy there certainly can never be any improvement in any socioeconomic aspect.

Households, as well as businesses, are under relentless pressure. The middleclass is suffering as most of its members are swimming in debt and living from month to month. And for those in the working class and other lower rungs of society the suffering is beyond words.

Why are the leaders in government not acting faster and bolder, as Hill-Lewis puts it?

His answer is that they lack the necessary “political will and urgency”, especially its head, President Cyril Ramaphosa.

In plain English, Ramaphosa lacks the determination or desire to solve this central crisis our country faces, or, put differently, he rates other matters as more urgent to attend to. Others would describe the lack of political will as lacking the willingness to spend political capital or to face the risks of the consequences of upsetting powerful interest groups one depends on for survival.

The upshot is that South Africa is stuck, and looks likely to remain so for some time. We are stuck this boggy marsh of low economic growth as we have been for years now.