Dawie Roodt: ‘Clueless’ Ramaphosa’s doubling down on BEE policy will accelerate SA economic disaster

One of South Africa’s top economists, Efficient Group’s Dawie Roodt, tears into what he believes is the sheer economic idiocy expressed by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Parliament yesterday. He says the billionaire ANC leader’s redoubling of an approach which has boosted his own bank account but made South Africa the world’s worst-performing economy with the highest unemployment will accelerate the slide. Roodt spoke to BizNews editor Alec Hogg..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.The auditorium doors will open for BNIC#2 on 10 September 2025 in Hermanus. For more information and tickets, click here..Watch here.Listen here.BizNews Reporter .In a sharply worded critique, economist Dawie Roodt has slammed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent call to intensify Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies, calling it a dangerous continuation of outdated and destructive economic ideologies. Speaking to Alec Hogg of BizNews, Roodt laid out a stark diagnosis of the country’s ailing economy and the political leadership he believes is failing it.President Ramaphosa recently addressed Parliament with a renewed defence of BEE, asserting that such policies need to be deepened to address the country’s entrenched inequality and high unemployment. However, Roodt dismissed the speech as “horrifying,” describing the President’s economic thinking as stuck in the 1920s and rooted in Marxist dogma.Skills and technology, not land and labour According to Roodt, modern economies no longer derive growth from traditional factors like capital, land, and unskilled labour. “A modern economy today centres around skills and technology,” he said, pointing to agriculture as a prime example of this shift. Once dominated by small-scale farmers, agriculture is now largely the domain of corporatised economic units requiring specialist knowledge - from drone pilots and electricians to geneticists.Roodt lamented that South Africa’s primary industries - mining and agriculture - now contribute relatively little to GDP, while the country’s manufacturing base is eroding due to infrastructure failures, including unreliable electricity and failing logistics. “We are losing our factories because we do not have electricity,” he said, adding that poor governance and bad policy are to blame for the ongoing deindustrialisation.The skills crisis and a failed education system One of Roodt’s most urgent concerns is the collapse of South Africa’s education system. He pointed to the closure of teacher training colleges and poor quality schooling as the root causes of the country’s dire skills shortage. “Our primary education absolutely sucks,” he said, adding that despite heavy spending, outcomes remain among the worst globally.Without addressing this foundational problem, Roodt argues, any attempt at economic empowerment is futile. “You cannot empower people without giving them the skills first. Giving people capital without skills is like pouring water into a bucket full of holes.”Misguided romanticism about rural development Roodt also criticised the government’s focus on rural development, calling it a misplaced nostalgia. With more than 60% of South Africans living in urban areas - a figure that continues to rise - he argued that resources should be focused where people actually are. “It makes more sense to build a road that serves a thousand people in a city than ten people in a remote area,” he said.Time for a political U-turn Roodt pulled no punches in blaming the ANC for the economic malaise, accusing the party of clinging to failed ideologies and lacking the competence to govern effectively. “The ANC has undermined the skills development system and implemented wrong policies for years. Now they want to double down on these disastrous strategies.”When asked about the role of the private sector, Roodt was clear: “It’s the private sector that will grow this economy - a skilled, well-supported, technologically enabled private sector.”Roodt also voiced ambivalence about the Democratic Alliance’s participation in the new Government of National Unity, suggesting that while it might offer a moderating influence, a clearer break with the ANC’s failed policies might be necessary to reset the political agenda.Urgent need for change The economic consequences of South Africa’s policy failures are well documented. With GDP per capita having declined for 17 years, Roodt warned that continued decline is inevitable unless there's a dramatic policy shift. Yet he remained hopeful that a political change could still steer the country towards recovery. “With the right government and right policies, we can turn this around within months,” he claimed.But until that happens, the message from South Africa’s political leadership - as Roodt sees it - is clear and troubling: “We don’t understand how an economy works, and we’re going to do more of what has already failed.”

Dawie Roodt: ‘Clueless’ Ramaphosa’s doubling down on BEE policy will accelerate SA economic disaster

Related Stories