Cyril Ramaphosa destroyed more jobs in South Africa than any other president

Job creation plummeted to an all-time low under President Cyril Ramaphosa, much worse than under Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, and Jacob Zuma.

This was revealed by the renowned political economist Frans Cronje during a presentation at a State of the Nation event.

In his presentation, Cronje provided a critical analysis of Ramaphosa’s economic track record, specifically focusing on job creation and investment.

He differentiated between two eras of ANC governance: the first 15 years under Mandela and Mbeki, and the period of stagnation under Zuma and Ramaphosa.

South Africa’s fixed investment as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was approximately 15% before 1994.

In the first 15 years of democracy, the ANC significantly increased fixed investment and economic growth and improved the lives of millions of South Africans.

When the ANC came to power, approximately 49% of families lived without electricity. By the time Mbeki left office, that number had dropped to under 20%.

The number of people in employment doubled during this period, rising from 8 million at the start of the ANC’s governance to almost 15 million by 2008.

Cronje added that there was a very strong lift in real per capita GDP leading up to 2008, indicating that the wealth generated in the economy was increasing significantly.

“The ANC were doing a good job at raising the basic standards of living of millions and millions of people,” he said.

“There are no emerging markets that can compete at scale with what the ANC achieved here in terms of service delivery in its first 15 years.”

Job creation under different South African Presidents

Cronje said the notion of jobless growth under the first two ANC administrations is complete nonsense.

“Mandela and Mbeki oversaw the creation of approximately 500,000 net new jobs per year,” he said in his presentation.

However, after Zuma became president, economic growth slowed, and job creation declined to 250,000 per year.

Under Ramaphosa, economic growth was nearly non-existent, and he has struggled to create more than 100,000 new jobs per year.

This performance is unsurprising, as Ramaphosa failed to lift the fixed investment rate in South Africa. It currently sits roughly half the emerging-market average.

“Despite the Government of National Unity (GNU), we are a 1% growth economy with an investment rate that’s half that of our emerging market peers,” he said.

South Africa’s economic growth rate is a quarter of that of its peers, which illustrates how dismal the performance truly is.

Cronje added that he and his colleagues were sceptical about Ramaphosa’s ability to reform the country and attract investment.

“At the time of CR17, my colleagues and I were very sceptical that he was a reformer because it didn’t match the history at all,” he said.

He said the facts showed that Ramaphosa was not a reformer and would not succeed in boosting investment.

“You could do a lot of clever PR and a whole lot of investment conferences, but there’s actually a number underneath that. That number did not move,” he said.

Share of households without electricity and Real GDP per capita

Job creation in South Africa