In a country with extremely high levels of poverty and unemployment, the only solution is economic growth, but the easiest way to achieve this is being hampered by policies like broad-based black economic empowerment B-BBEE. If companies grow, employment will naturally grow, creating a cycle of growth. There is no way to circumnavigate this chain, as South Africa's latest statistics prove.
The economy grew by just 0.1 in the first quarter of 2025. At least it wasn't the 0.1 contraction predicted by Bloomberg, but with economic growth at less than half the rate of population growth, we are essentially in a recession. South Africa's GDP figures have been terrible over the past 10 years, and unemployment has continued to rise. The official unemployment rate in the first half of 2025 rose from 31.9 to 32.9, and the unemployment figure - including those that have given up looking for work - has risen to a staggering 43.1.
Importing skilled people from all over the world helped inform the next policy that proved vital to Singapore's growth: English as the lingua franca . Making English the official language of business in Singapore removed language barriers for companies wanting to trade with other English-speaking economies - more than half the world. English is spoken in 88 countries and is also the language of the United Nations and the EU, making it the dominant language of business on the planet and the language that is needed to program 99.9 of all computers in the world.
Unlike Singapore, which imported the skills it needed to kick-start its growth, South Africa is exporting its expertise.
The UN's International Migrant Stock report shows a steady outflow of skilled South Africans. In 2020, 900 000 South Africans lived abroad, and this number surpassed a million in 2024. This translates to an average of 74 people leaving every day between 2020 and 2024. It has reached such concerning levels that the Allianz Risk Barometer for 2025 showed that the shortage of skilled workers has become one of South Africa's biggest risks.