South Africa

One of the major factors holding economic growth back in South Africa is power shortages. While Eskom, the public utility, has 45,000 MW of capacity, an estimated one-third of this is currently out of commission due to a combination of scheduled maintenance and unexpected breakdowns.

In recent years South African companies, especially financial institutions, have harboured international ambitions, focusing on Europe and other developing markets. However, they are now starting to look closer to home.

South Africa’s economy has experienced relatively slow growth in recent years, and GDP has not risen by the rates seen prior to the global financial crisis of 2008-09. The country is suffering from the same global trends as many other developing markets, with falling commodity prices and the threat of rising interest rates taking their toll....

Understanding South Africa’s history is integral to making sense of its current political and economic issues. From the first arrival of Dutch colonists in the 1600s through to the early 1900s, European colonials treated South Africa’s indigenous majority as second-class citizens at best and slave labour at worst. This arrangement continued...

In spite of the domestic challenges the government must navigate, South Africa maintains a robust diplomatic presence. Its transition from apartheid to democracy resulted in a significant readjustment of its foreign relations in 1994, which saw it join the South African Development Community, the Organisation of African Unity – replaced by the...

In 2015 South Africa celebrated two decades since the end of the apartheid system, a watershed moment that in many ways marked the rebirth of the country. The 1994 elections – the country’s first multi-racial and fully open polls – were fêted around the world, and such was the momentousness of the occasion that people across the country waited...