In a stark warning to policymakers, Samuel Seeff, chairman of the Seeff Property Group, has vehemently called for the South African Reserve Banks SARB Monetary Policy Committee MPC to take decisive action ahead of their upcoming meeting, Cape town Etc reports.
The plea comes in light of alarming new unemployment statistics, which indicate that another 237 000 South Africans have lost their jobs in the first quarter of the year, pushing the unemployment rate to a staggering 32.9, an increase from 31.9 in the previous quarter.
The latest figures reveal that a troubling 8.2 million people are now unemployed in South Africa, and under the expanded definition, that number soars to 12.7 million or 43.1 of the working-age population.
These statistics paint a grim picture of an economy struggling to recover, with the International Monetary Fund IMF and Moody's having downgraded the country's economic growth outlook to a mere 1, following a dismal year of just 0.6 growth in the previous fiscal year.
Seeff expressed his concerns during a press briefing, stating that the ongoing economic stagnation and the increasing unemployment rate are untenable for South Africas stability.