The frequency of scandals and policy missteps in SA can be exhausting and numbing to any investor who follows the daily news bulletins.
But you’d be wrong. There are indications that unless drastic steps are taken urgently, we may experience variations of social unrest at any time. Let me illustrate the point. During the unrest, none of our more than 3,000 employees in all our businesses in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and Northern Cape participated in the looting or rioting. In KwaZulu-Natal, the province that suffered most of the damage, our business operations, which employ about 1,000 people, continued normally.
I share the concern expressed by Mpumi Tyikwe, CEO of SA Special Risk Insurance Association in Business Day . His comments should worry all of us who are concerned about the country’s stability. He said: “The biggest worry is youth unemployment. The youth are sitting and idling.”