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South Africa has a steadily growing GDP, and is one of the least corrupt countries in Africa. GDP has been growing steadily despite issues with the state owned

South Africa has a steadily growing GDP, and is one of the least corrupt countries in Africa. GDP has been growing steadily despite issues with the state owned energy provider Eskom. The private sector is robust against government incompetence. It’s not easy to live here, but the opportunities are massive (because the playing field is open if you are skilled).

wjaugustyn 4y ago
And BRICS helps a lot. It’s great to have a trade partner like China. Not all exporters feel happy to export to Russia currently.
cm2187 4y ago
GDP growth seems to have been in the 1-2% area for the past 10y. That's ok for a developed economy but that's low for a developing country that needs to pull its population out of poverty. Also I'm not sure that "one of the least corrupt countries in Africa" is such a high bar.
- linhns 4y ago
  And corruption is increasing!
- wjaugustyn 4y ago
  Let’s put it this way. In South Africa it’s not a constant onslaught of having to pay people off government officials, like in all other sub-Saharan countries I’ve been in.
buyx 4y ago
South Africa is a deteriorating shithole. My mother was telling me that they want to move to guarded security estate because she is afraid she might be raped, and my father bludgeoned in their home. (NB: they’re not under threat because of their race, rather because that’s what criminals do). The police are dumb as rocks and totally lazy: look at the Boksburg tanker blast in December to see how they don’t GAF about doing their jobs.the public was standing around a burning gas tanker taking pictures for social media for hours before it exploded and killed dozens. The police only pitched after the explosion. There is no serious border control, and any mention of it is shut down as “xenophobic” by the media and business that want to flout labour regulations by hiring undocumented migrants from the rest of Africa, despite the obscene unemployment rate. The electricity situation has been discussed at length here previously, but it’s strangling the economy. Sure you can make money if you are skilled, but you can make better money using those skills in any number of other countries. The only thing that’s keeping many middle-class South Africans from emigrating is the cheap domestic help. They are happy to exploit the obscene inequality since it gives them cheap labour. They live in terror of washing their own clothes and cleaning their own toilets.
- ashwagary 4y ago
  >South Africa is a deteriorating shithole. A large % of white South Africans dislike the idea of the masses rising. The expectation that the transition should be comfortable is naive at best.
  - buyx 4y ago
    What makes you think I’m white? In any case, apart from many Afrikaners, whites are increasingly irrelevant to the discussion about South Africa’s future-they’re dwindling as a percentage of the population because of aging, emigration, higher black birth rates and inward migration from other African counties. The country is, objectively, deteriorating.
    - ashwagary 4y ago
      >What makes you think I’m white? I didn't say you were. >whites are increasingly irrelevant to the discussion about South Africa’s future-they’re dwindling as a percentage Not true, the owners of the vast majority of SA land are still a tiny white minority. As long as this is the case, they are relevant. >The country is, objectively, deteriorating. The world's worst wealth inequality [0] will do that to a country until resolved. As I mentioned above, the transition will not be comfortable and anyone expecting it to be is wildly misinformed. [0] "South Africa is the most economically unequal country in the world, according to the World Bank. The difference between wealthy and poor in South Africa has been increasing steadily since the end of apartheid in 1994, and this inequality is closely linked to racial divisions in society." [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_South_Africa https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_South_A...
      - buyx 4y ago
        India and China have both managed to uplift their economies in the last 30 years without the “discomfort” of violent crime, increasing corruption, the collapse of state institutions and an inability to generate electricity. Of course reducing everyone to grinding poverty is one way of reducing inequality, but it’s hard to see what the utility of that would be. Blacks will, and do, bear the brunt of the deterioration anyway.

wjaugustyn 4y ago

And BRICS helps a lot. It’s great to have a trade partner like China. Not all exporters feel happy to export to Russia currently.

cm2187 4y ago

GDP growth seems to have been in the 1-2% area for the past 10y. That's ok for a developed economy but that's low for a developing country that needs to pull its population out of poverty. Also I'm not sure that "one of the least corrupt countries in Africa" is such a high bar.

linhns 4y ago
And corruption is increasing!
wjaugustyn 4y ago
Let’s put it this way. In South Africa it’s not a constant onslaught of having to pay people off government officials, like in all other sub-Saharan countries I’ve been in.

buyx 4y ago

South Africa is a deteriorating shithole. My mother was telling me that they want to move to guarded security estate because she is afraid she might be raped, and my father bludgeoned in their home. (NB: they’re not under threat because of their race, rather because that’s what criminals do). The police are dumb as rocks and totally lazy: look at the Boksburg tanker blast in December to see how they don’t GAF about doing their jobs.the public was standing around a burning gas tanker taking pictures for social media for hours before it exploded and killed dozens. The police only pitched after the explosion. There is no serious border control, and any mention of it is shut down as “xenophobic” by the media and business that want to flout labour regulations by hiring undocumented migrants from the rest of Africa, despite the obscene unemployment rate. The electricity situation has been discussed at length here previously, but it’s strangling the economy. Sure you can make money if you are skilled, but you can make better money using those skills in any number of other countries. The only thing that’s keeping many middle-class South Africans from emigrating is the cheap domestic help. They are happy to exploit the obscene inequality since it gives them cheap labour. They live in terror of washing their own clothes and cleaning their own toilets.

ashwagary 4y ago
>South Africa is a deteriorating shithole. A large % of white South Africans dislike the idea of the masses rising. The expectation that the transition should be comfortable is naive at best.
- buyx 4y ago
  What makes you think I’m white? In any case, apart from many Afrikaners, whites are increasingly irrelevant to the discussion about South Africa’s future-they’re dwindling as a percentage of the population because of aging, emigration, higher black birth rates and inward migration from other African counties. The country is, objectively, deteriorating.
  - ashwagary 4y ago
    >What makes you think I’m white? I didn't say you were. >whites are increasingly irrelevant to the discussion about South Africa’s future-they’re dwindling as a percentage Not true, the owners of the vast majority of SA land are still a tiny white minority. As long as this is the case, they are relevant. >The country is, objectively, deteriorating. The world's worst wealth inequality [0] will do that to a country until resolved. As I mentioned above, the transition will not be comfortable and anyone expecting it to be is wildly misinformed. [0] "South Africa is the most economically unequal country in the world, according to the World Bank. The difference between wealthy and poor in South Africa has been increasing steadily since the end of apartheid in 1994, and this inequality is closely linked to racial divisions in society." [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_South_Africa https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_South_A...
    - buyx 4y ago
      India and China have both managed to uplift their economies in the last 30 years without the “discomfort” of violent crime, increasing corruption, the collapse of state institutions and an inability to generate electricity. Of course reducing everyone to grinding poverty is one way of reducing inequality, but it’s hard to see what the utility of that would be. Blacks will, and do, bear the brunt of the deterioration anyway.