PHILIPPE BURGER: SA needs a green, urban-driven investment strategy to realise growth

Even before Covid-19, the SA economy found itself in recession, with the official unemployment rate exceeding 29% and economic growth all but disappearing. Then the pandemic hit, probably shrinking the size of the economy by more than 5% and pushing unemployment up yet further.

We need to reimagine an SA where economic growth is high, inclusive, green, investment-driven and urban-focused. We need to shift our focus towards urban and especially metropolitan development, supported by a sustainable agricultural sector to feed everyone. According to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, SA’s urban population is set to increase to between 50-million and 52-million by 2035, an increase of 12-million to 14-million from 2018. Gauteng’s 2018 population was 13.

To demonstrate the possibilities for a future SA, let’s take two sectors that require a complete reimagination: energy and water. To solve the country’s future energy demands, it needs to rely more on renewable energy. The Northern Cape, covering an area larger than Germany, gets some of the best sunshine in the world — its direct normal irradiation is more than 8kWh/m², higher than even the Sahara receives.

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