Old political-economy problems always nibble at the feet of new aspirant runners. These problems are systemic and get carried from one era to another despite the changing face of political players.
In the last 15 years, South Africa rode the economic wave on the basis of a commodity boom, consumption driven growth and the financialisation of our economy via stock speculation, property bubbles and other ways of sourcing unearned income. The real economy showed little traction other than what was already in place.
Fifteen years is a lot of time to lose. If we look back we may ask ourselves, “Where did we spend all our effort and who has benefited the most during this time?”
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The new growth path and the three elephants in the room
By Saliem Fakir