Economist Dawie Roodt argues ideological resistance to private sector participation is holding back reform.
The country’s economy will start to grow once the ANC goes because the party’s default position is to keep control, a leading economist says.
Chief economist at Efficient Group Dawie Roodt was pessimistic about the economic future under the ANC.
‘ANC is the reason we are here today’
Roodt suggested the ANC should be completely removed from government if the economy is to function properly and experience a resilient upward trajectory.
“The reason that all these bad things are happening is that the dominant party in South Africa over the past 30 years has been the ANC.
“The ANC is the reason we are where we are today. Will the guys who got us into this mess get us out of it? I don’t think so,” Roodt said.
Criticism over Eskom transmission decision
He lambasted Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa for attempting to frustrate private sector participation in the Eskom transmission wing when the minister announced that transmission would remain in Eskom, instead of being separated from it, along with generation and distribution.
“He did that because that’s what his ideology tells him. That is what the ANC do. They want to keep control over things. Clearly the default position of the ANC is to control things and to run it aground.”
Roodt also criticised Ramaphosa, saying his heart was not in using the private sector.
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“The president’s heart is not in private participation, his heart is in controlling things. If you ask me, what we need to fix South Africa is to get rid of the ANC. Really, it is as simple as that,” Roodt said.
Analysts’ mixed views
He was commenting in a panel discussion at North-West University’s Business School, under the topic: Sona 2026: Policy Direction in an Election Year. It formed part of the schools regular PITSO discussion programme.
Participating analysts expressed mixed views on Ramaphosa’s recent economic announcements, recognising that the country remained in the dangerous zone of ongoing stagnation.
They saw the recent rise in GDP growth as a hopeful sign, but Roodt questioned whether the ANC, with its history of poor economic management and bad governance, was the right vehicle to lead the country across the threshold of sustainable growth of up to 3%.
Reform efforts and private sector role
On the positive side, Roodt believed that Ramaphosa’s recent State of the Nation Address was “positive” and his solutions were “implementable”.
Claude de Baissac, founder and CEO of Eunomix, a resilience advisory group, stated that Ramaphosa was selective in his timeframe, choosing to focus on the last few months to a year rather than the last 15 years of consistent economic underperformance in South Africa. De Baissac expressed frustration that the economy had grown by at least 1.2% annually over the past 15 years, which is an anomaly, a point also noted by Roodt.
Momentum Investments chief economist Sanisha Packirisamy lauded some government reform measures, such as Operation Vulindlela, which focuses on network industries.
She said that in order to address competing priorities on the social front, it is key to include the private sector more and more in state socioeconomic projects.
“Integrating the private sector into some of these key socioeconomic reforms also enables additional funding and technical know-how,” Packirisamy said.
There was an appetite among the private sector to enter infrastructure development, with some companies expressing interest in building corridors across Africa and logistics networks to improve transportation and trade. Also, the government had realised it lacked the technical expertise and funding to operate independently.
“Liberalising some projects to include private-sector participation would help anchor the country’s high growth rate,” Packirisamy said.
She said there were pockets of potential additional growth in projects such as youth employment programmes, funding for early childhood development, and others that needed to be pursued at a particular scale to achieve the 2-3 percent growth envisaged.
She also suggested that funds must be ringfenced so that the finance goes directly into the projects, thereby ensuring investment viability.
The analyst cautions against basing the country’s economic growth on what she called “short-termism” without taking into account its historical context.
“The president’s Sona should be assessed on whether it presented sufficient reforms to enable the economy to grow at 2-2.5% or more.
“But 3 percent in the next five years is a bit of pie in the sky, considering that our fixed investment growth has not yet fired up. In all honesty, it will come through around 2027,” she predicted.
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