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outh Africans are looking to the country’s leadership to take decisive steps to lead us safely through the current turbulent economic times.

South Africa does not attract enough investment for a variety of reasons, including the persisting inequality in income. The World Bank reports that the top ten earners in South Africa earn 58% of income while the bottom 50% earns 8%. This is one of the main factors deterring international investors, mainly for the fear of future instability resulting from this huge income inequality.

The gloomy picture of the rising cost of living and the higher than inflation increases in administered prices such as water and electricity, the threat of worsening economic conditions at an international level is also of grave concern.

The continuing economic turmoil in Europe with an increasing number of countries needing bail-outs and the latest news that Germany faces a possible downgrading because of Greek banks who cannot service their German loans, together with a slowdown in economic growth in China, will have a negative effect on South Africa. According to the World Bank report the slowdown in the China’s economic growth could mean that growth in South Africa could slow down to 2.5% for the year.

We urge government, business and labour leaders to put their heads together and devise a plan to protect South Africans from these negative economic effects and to ride out the wave of financial uncertainty.