Middle East & Africa | Downhill from rainbow nation

Business leaders fear that South Africa risks becoming a failed state

CEOs have realised that running the country cannot be left to the ANC

A resident adjusts power lines in the Imizamo Yethu informal settlement, in the Hout Bay district of Cape Town, South Africa, on Thursday, March 3, 2022. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., South Africas indebted power utility, is considering selling distribution assets as prospects of the government taking over about half of its 392 billion rand ($26 billion) obligations dim, people with knowledge of the matter said. Photographer: Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Image: Getty Images
|JOHANNESBURG

When Cyril Ramaphosa became South Africa’s president in 2018, business leaders were ecstatic. Here was one of their own: a pragmatic tycoon to fix the incompetent kleptocracy of Jacob Zuma. Yet five years on, bosses of large businesses are exasperated. CEOs from several different industries—such as Neal Froneman of Sibanye-Stillwater, a mining company; Daniel Mminele, the incoming chair of Nedbank; and Ralph Mupita, of MTN, a telecoms firm—have sounded the alarm. Could South Africa become a failed state?

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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Fear of the failed state”

From the May 27th 2023 edition

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