MESSAGE FROM THE MD
Measure (LSM) and in total 10 million
consumers added to the middle higher
LSMs (5–10); and
• Social grant beneficiaries rose from 2.4
million to 16.1 million people today.
However, we have a number of
seemingly intractable problems we must,
as a country, address. The South African
economy continues to chug along on a
very low growth trajectory. The IMF and
National Treasury GDP forecasts of 2.9%
and 3% respectively of a year ago have
been reduced to 1.4% for both today. Our
unemployment rate, according to STATS
SA, remains stubbornly at 25.4% (narrow)
and 33.8% (broad). There were numerous
occurrences this year that militated against
increased growth, some in the global arena,
but many in our control. These include
the slow recovery in our trading partners,
the protracted labour strikes, ongoing
uncertainty on policy implementation and
interpretation and the ongoing problems in
education, health, skills and infrastructure.
The following critical issues are pertinent:
• The crisis at Eskom! The recent load
shedding has led to very serious issues in
the economy, with businesses experiencing
losses and constraints on their ability to
grow. This situation is exacerbated by a
seeming denial from Eskom management
about the crisis the institution is in.
We also see differing responses from
government. The latest response, which is
to give Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa
the responsibility to address the crisis