{"id":1432,"date":"2023-10-12T10:42:58","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T10:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/?p=1432"},"modified":"2026-03-18T11:46:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:46:25","slug":"south-africas-collapse-under-cyril-ramaphosa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/2023\/10\/12\/south-africas-collapse-under-cyril-ramaphosa\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa\u2019s collapse under Cyril Ramaphosa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Africa is collapsing under President Cyril Ramaphosa, with the rand weakening, debt increasing, and state-owned enterprises failing.<\/p>\n

When Ramaphosa took over from former President Jacob Zuma on 15 February 2018, there was hope of a new dawn for South Africa.<\/p>\n

Referred to as Ramaphoria, his ascension to power was seen as a positive shift from the Zuma era marred by corruption and economic decline.<\/p>\n

The public trusted Ramaphosa to appoint competent leaders to bring about meaningful reforms, fight corruption, boost the economy, and address social issues.<\/p>\n

This hope started to fade as many of the problems associated with Zuma and state capture accelerated.<\/p>\n

Under Ramaphosa, Eskom\u2019s decline accelerated with constant load-shedding. The railways collapsed, many municipalities became dysfunctional, and crime reached disastrous levels.<\/p>\n

The economy is in a dire state, and the country continues to battle record levels of unemployment and poverty.<\/p>\n

Skilled professionals are flooding out of the country as they do not see a future for themselves and their children in South Africa.<\/p>\n

The 2022\/23 Professional Provident Society (PPS) Student Confidence Index revealed that 90% of university students desired to work and live abroad.<\/p>\n

The percentage of students, particularly younger black students, who want to leave jumped from 39% to 90% in two years.<\/p>\n

They cited crime, corruption, lack of job opportunities, failing infrastructure, and the rising cost of living as reasons for wanting to move overseas.<\/p>\n

Ramaphosa and the ruling ANC have failed to convince South Africans that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Most people accept that matters will get worse.<\/p>\n

Many business leaders warn that the country is on the cusp of becoming a failed state and that people should brace for many tough years.<\/p>\n

Renowned economist Dawie Roodt warned that South Africans should prepare for high inflation, a weak currency, high interest rates, and political and financial uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Roodt said he could see the rand going to R25 or R30 to the US dollar in the next two to three years and that inflation could rise above 10%.<\/p>\n

Sygnia CEO Magda Wierzycka said\u00a0South Africa is already a failed state\u00a0and that there is nothing on the horizon that would change the situation.<\/p>\n

She highlighted that municipalities, which form the backbone of South Africa\u2019s government, cannot provide basic services like water and electricity.<\/p>\n

Wierzycka added that\u00a0the government is sabotaging businesses\u00a0and killing the economy. \u201cWe have a situation where the government is actively destroying jobs through incompetence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To assess whether these criticisms are justified, Daily Investor analysed South Africa\u2019s performance under Ramaphosa using objective metrics.<\/p>\n

The sections below give an overview of South Africa\u2019s performance under Ramaphosa since he took office in 2018.<\/p>\n

GDP growth<\/h2>\n

Over the last five years, South Africa\u2019s gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been very low when measured against peer countries.<\/p>\n

The gross domestic product of countries with an emerging market economy typically grows by 6% to 7% annually.<\/p>\n

In comparison, South Africa\u2019s GDP growth has not exceeded 1.9% in any calendar year, excluding the Covid rebound in 2021.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s GDP growth was also lower than its population growth, which means South Africans got poorer under Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n

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Currency weakness<\/h2>\n

The rand has experienced tremendous deterioration compared to the US dollar and other international currencies over the last five years.<\/p>\n

During Ramaphosa\u2019s presidency, the rand weakened from R14.80 in 2018 to R19.72 in 2023, significantly diluting South African wealth on an international level.<\/p>\n

The currency hit its weakest level in 2023 amidst the worst power cuts on record and a spat with the United States over allegations that a Russian ship had picked up weapons in South Africa.<\/p>\n

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South Africa\u2019s debt<\/h2>\n

South Africa\u2019s debt increased tremendously during Ramaphosa\u2019s presidency. The government\u2019s debt-to-GDP ratio increased from 52% in 2018 to over 70% in 2023.<\/p>\n

During the 2023 national budget speech, it was clear that finance costs are the fastest-growing line item in the national budget.<\/p>\n

This is due to South Africa\u2019s high cost of debt due to its junk credit rating and debt levels continuously increasing.<\/p>\n

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Post Office collapse<\/h2>\n

State-owned enterprises have been run into the ground under Ramaphosa, with huge losses and government bailouts becoming the norm.<\/p>\n

Since Ramaphosa became president, the South African Post Office (SAPO) has racked up losses on an incredible level.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the SAPO reported a R1.08 billion loss. This has increased to over R2 billion in 2023. The Post Office has reported total losses of R8.5 billion since Ramaphosa became president.<\/p>\n

The Post Office was placed under business rescue\u00a0this year. Its liabilities exceed its assets by R7.9 billion, meaning it is hopelessly insolvent.<\/p>\n

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Eskom and load-shedding<\/h2>\n

Eskom collapsed under Ramaphosa\u2019s watch. The country experienced record load-shedding, with power cuts now part of everyday life.<\/p>\n

Apart from its operational challenges, Eskom is also in a worse financial position than ever.<\/p>\n

Over the last five years, Eskom accumulated losses of R81 billion, which caused its debt to reach unsustainable levels.<\/p>\n

It forced the government to provide Eskom with debt relief amounting to R254 billion, which puts taxpayers under increasing pressure.<\/p>\n

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Problems at the SABC<\/h2>\n

The South African Broadcasting Commission (SABC) has undergone the same trend as other state-owned enterprises, with mounting losses and relying on bailouts to survive.<\/p>\n

The state broadcaster reported a R1.13 billion loss in the 2023 financial year. It reported total losses of R3.6 billion since Ramaphosa became president.<\/p>\n

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Transnet decline<\/h2>\n

Over the last few years, Transnet has struggled to provide basic rail and port services, which caused tremendous damage to the economy.<\/p>\n

Transnet\u2019s poor service levels hampered commodity exports, which cost the South African economy billions each month.<\/p>\n

It has reached such critical levels that miners have begun retrenchments.\u00a0Analysts warned\u00a0that up to 35,000 mine workers could be retrenched due to the collapse of Transnet.<\/p>\n

Transnet\u2019s troubles filtered down to its finances. It reported a net loss of R5.7 billion in the 2023 financial year.<\/p>\n

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South Africa is collapsing under President Cyril Ramaphosa, with the rand weakening, debt increasing, and state-owned enterprises failing. When Ramaphosa took over from former President…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-innov8ions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1441,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions\/1441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}