South Africans have survived situations far worse than the current global economic crisis, President Kgalema Mothlante said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday evening.

"It will not be easy -- let's not be naive; however as South Africans, we have come through more difficult times," Motlanthe said.

"Just to contextualise, you may recall the state of the South African economy we inherited in 1994. It was an economy in decline, with high debt and high unemployment. It was an isolated state with few diplomatic and trading partners in the world.

"The largest contribution to GDP [gross domestic product] came from the extraction industries with little or no manufacturing footprint to speak of. The social condition of the country was in absolute dire straits as a consequence of Apartheid policies."

He said the current crunch had affected South Africa in several ways, most notably a drop in export demands.

"Though our banking system escaped turmoil internally, their global operating environment has been all but decimated with very little capital available for investment.

"Close to 60 percent of our exports were destined for the US, EU and Japan and the contraction of demand in those economies is going to have a direct impact on our manufacturers and the labour they employ.

"The decline in commodity demand and prices also has a negative impact on those sectors in South Africa," said Motlanthe.