SA economic growth lags behind Africa due to strikes
Image by: MIKE HUTCHINGS / REUTERS
The Wall Street Journal has published an article painting a bleak picture of South Africa's economy, saying labour unrest has caused its economic growth to fall behind other African states.
"The unrest is exposing a stark reality -- South Africa is falling behind, even in Africa," read the Wall Street Journal article, published on its website on Friday.
The article said Rwanda, which had 800,000 people killed in the same year the ANC took power, had managed to achieve annual economic growth near eight percent since 2004, more than double South Africa's 3.7 percent growth rate during the same period.
It said that when Zambia held its democratic elections in 1991, it scrapped nationalisation, but South Africa "is debating nationalisation and other ways to intervene in the mining sector".
Countrywide strikes coupled with unemployment and income disparity were posing a grave challenge to the ruling party, read the Wall Street Journal article.
Brazil's economy had grown around the same pace as South Africa's but its income disparity had diminished, it added.
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