Gov't desire for economic control has led to further decline in SA’s economic freedom – report

By: Thabi Madiba

Think tank Free Market Foundation CEO David Ansara has blamed South Africa’s consistent decline in economic freedom on government’s “unabated, stifling desire” for economic control. The 2023 Economic Freedom of the World report reveals that South Africa has dropped to 94 in economic freedom rankings, down one place from its ranking of 93 last year. South Africa remains in the third out of four quartiles of economic freedom. FMF senior consultant and Cumberland University Professor of Finance and Economics Richard Grant said South Africans had, once again, lost economic freedom not only in absolute terms but relative to most other countries. The report revealed that this is a significant drop from South Africa’s highest ranking on the index, which was attained in 2000, when it placed forty-seventh, amidst the largely business- and growth-friendly reforms of the Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki administrations. “Since then, the country has consistently declined in the rankings as government has introduced more and more misguided policies. These policies invariably seek to regiment economic activity in line with government’s ideological ambitions, rather than with the economic needs and demands of society as manifested in the market,” the FMF highlighted. →