Land expropriation without compensation will not go ahead because President Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet do not want South Africa’s unemployment rate to spike to the level of Zimbabwe, according to leading South Africa economist Dr Roelof Botha, who addressed the Daily Dispatch Customer Innovation Summit at the East London ICC yesterday.
He also predicted that, economically speaking, “seven golden years” were around the corner for the country.
Botha was one of seven thought leaders in the fields of economics, brand strategy, customer experience, public relations and entrepreneurship to deliver thought-provoking presentations at the summit, which was attended by about 140 delegates.
“We won’t go the Zimbabwe route,” said the straight-talking economist. “I’m convinced that our parliament is not so stupid as to want a 95% unemployment rate like in Zimbabwe.”
He said the ANC was split 60/40, with the Ramaphosa camp in the majority.
“They want to stop corruption and act in South Africa’s interests. People want jobs, roads, education and healthcare, but there is no farm on that list of wants.
“People don’t actually want huge tracts of land. What they want is title deeds. We built 2.3 million RDP houses in the Mbeki years but less than 2% of owners have title deeds. Title deeds have a tangible value.”
He said a fund should be established to provide mortgage loans for specific expenditures like water tanks, solar geysers and vegetable gardens.
Painting a positive picture of the country’s economic growth, Botha said the number of black South Africans who earned R650000 a year had overtaken whites, and business should take cognisance of this.
“2019 and 2020 will be bumper years [for the economy] as far as I’m concerned.”
GG Alcock approached the country’s economic landscape from another angle, drawing delegates’ attention to the vibrant trade transpiring in the informal sector, much of which is ignored by formal business.
Alcock, who grew up in a low-income area of Zululand during the apartheid years – when he and his activist parents lived in a mud hut among Zulu people without electricity or TV – has coined the term “Kasinomics”, which explores the economics of the informal sector.
He said some women selling vetkoek earned between R800 and R1000 a day and that he had interviewed a vendor who sold snacks outside a school for three hours a day and earned R6000 a month.
“They are not an informal sector but a growth sector.”
He said “spazarettes”, or small supermarkets owned by immigrants, would change the retail sector in this country because they were up to 11% cheaper than supermarkets, and also paid millions in rent to South Africans.
“We need to open our eyes to informal economies. We need to see opportunities in informal economies. We have entered the age of the Afropolitan because African people are modernising but are keeping their strong cultural roots. It can be seen in the food they eat, like bunny chows and vetkoek.
“One man sells 2 400 kotas a day in Johannesburg.”
A kota is a quarter loaf of bread stuffed with slap chips, and loaded with cheese and sometimes a Russian sausage.
Certified customer experience professional Julia Ahlfeldt said this was the “age of the customer” because consumers were now in a position to make informed decisions thanks to abundant information, smartphones and digital channels.
Daily Dispatch editor Sibusiso Ngalwa said bringing industry experts to East London and partnering with the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) was a way to make meaningful connections for the future of the newspaper and provide local business with helpful, game-changing information. -barbarah@dispatch.co.za..