My articles share my insights. Sometimes it is about policy and at other times about entrepreneurship.
Category Inequality in South Africa
AllInequality in South AfricaNotesPolitics of development in South AfricaPublic sector reform in South AfricaSmall Business Development in South AfricaSouth African Fiscal Policy
Thoughts on predistribution and B-BBEE: lessons from trade union investment companies and ESOPs in South Africa
A bit of nervous in introducing the concept of predistribution at a webinar hosted by the South Centre for Inequality Studies. Below are the slides from the presentation which is loosely based on a chapter I wrote on Trade Union…
Counting structural unemployment.
Unemployment is either “frictional” or “structural”. In textbooks the definitions are precise, but for this article: Frictional means one is likely to get a job fairly quickly through job searching Structural means that one is unlikely to get a job even if…
How the SACP and World Bank Agree on Policies that Restrain Redistribution in South Africa
Have we reached the end of the road for redistribution in South Africa? Recent publications by the World Bank and the South African Communist Party (SACP) suggest that the time for redistribution may well be over. The oddness of the…
Is the ANC Serious about ‘Radical Economic Transformation’?
Presidents’ relish shorthand descriptions of the agenda they are implementing. In Jacob Zuma’s first term of office, the term “faster change” played that role. Bureaucrats and politicians quickly took up this term not merely to demonstrate loyalty to a newly…
NDP Inadequate to the Task of Addressing South Africa’s Inequality
“A rising tide lifts all boats.” This aphorism means that in a growing economy everyone benefits, and by extension that government’s role is to focus on the macroeconomic environment. Moreover, it suggests that distributional changes occur after economic growth. In…
We’re Running Out of Time: The Interminable 50-Year Vision of the ANC’s Second Transition
The fisticuffs around the concept of a “Second Transition” have defined debates in the run-up to the African National Congress (ANC) national policy conference. The drafters of The Second Transition: Building a National Democratic Society and the Balance of Forces…
The National Development Plan will End Poverty in South Africa by 2030 – Really?
Mzansi 2030: The clarion call within the ruling party congress is “Masupatsela.” The report from the secretariat is depressing. It tells us that once upon a time, an astute minister with a talented bunch of advisors and bureaucrats dreamed of…
South Africa’s Economic Growth Path and the Limits of Imagination
Imagination is absent in the conventional spaces of South Africa’s economic growth path. Conventional wisdom equates increasing economic growth to around 7%, as an important target. In political speak, the growth target is of course a “necessary” and not a…
An Open Letter to Ministers Patel, Davies and Gordhan
Dear Ministers, Patel, Davies and Gordhan Consider this letter a criticism that nevertheless appreciates the value of your recent work on creating the building blocks for a new development path in South Africa. After all, as our collective history indicates,…