Labour legislation causes further slide for SA in WEF Competitiveness Table

By Alec Hogg

In the four years since 2011, South Africa's respective placings in the WEF's annual Global Competitiveness Report has been 50th; 52nd; 53rd; and now 56th. Thankfully we're still in the top half of 144 countries covered, but Mauritius (39th) is out of site in the African league and Rwanda (62nd) catching up fast.

This year SA achieved a shameful two wooden spoons (ranked 144th) and is in the world's bottom five in eight categories. Three of those festering sores are directly related to labour relations legislation. How Pretoria keeps compounding this by imposing still further restrictions (see the latest Government Gazette) is beyond the realm of any rational being.

On the plus side, the country got two gold medals and five more rankings in the global top six. All of those came in the First World sector of the economy. SA is number one worldwide in auditing and reporting standards; and the regulation of securities exchanges. The other bright spots are protection of minority shareholders; efficacy of boards; soundness of banks, equity market financing and availability of financial services. Take a bow JSE. And the banking sector. But don't crow too loudly. We really don't need any blowhards meddling in one of the few bastions of national excellence.

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