SOUTH Africa ought to provide policy certainty and tackle its problems one at a time in order to deliver the country from its economic troubles as demonstrated by the technical recession into which it entered, said Bloomberg News which cited the comments of Ian Kirk, CEO of Sanlam – Africa’s largest insurer by market value.
“When you’re in the situation that we’re in, you have to have a single-minded purpose,” Kirk told the wire service. “Anything – any policy uncertainty – that causes a negative on investment flows, investor confidence, consumer confidence is just something for another day,” he added.
The South African economy tipped into its first recession in nine years in the second quarter as President Cyril Ramaphosa tried to restore confidence battered by almost nine years of misrule by his predecessor, said Bloomberg News.
It also comes as the ruling African National Congress pushes changes to the constitution to make it easier to seize land without compensation and uncertainty lingers over mining that have hindered investment.
From a mining perspective, discussions are also underway between the Department of Mineral Resources and the Minerals Council of South Africa, and other stakeholders including unions, to draft a new Mining Charter after a disastrous version published last year looked set to confirm that the country’s mining sector was ex-growth.
