How world sees SA: SOEs reaching a tipping point – The Wall Street Journal

Growing problems at South Africa’s state-owned enterprises are pushing major companies toward bankruptcy and subjecting the continent’s most developed economy to rolling blackouts that are choking growth.

Published on:

02 Jan 2020, 1:04 pm

Writing about the state owned enterprises feels like beating the same drum over and over, or singing the same tune. There are only so many ways to describe a pending disaster; the eminent Wall Street Journal has chosen the terms "a cliff's edge" and "it's gluing sentiment to the floor." Business leaders, ratings agencies, economists, analysts, foreign governments, traders, investors and opposition leaders are all giving the ANC government the same message: the public entities, Eskom, SAA et al are breaking the back of the economy and if something is not done urgently about it; it will drag the country further into a rabbit hole and people will suffer. President Cyril Ramaphosa became the President of the ANC in December 2017. At the time the business community sighed with relief; South Africa was in better hands. But the belief in Ramaphosa is starting to waver, with more and more people asking whether he has the guts and ability to drag the country back to better times. – Linda van Tilburg