A mammoth task lies ahead for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration to reform South Africa’s economy. Progress has been made, but “one shouldn’t overestimate where we are. We’ve been taking steps in the right direction. We still need to do a lot more,” says economist and businesswoman Trudi Makhaya.
Makhaya has been serving as President Ramaphosa’s economic adviser since April 2018. Between then and now, the country hosted a jobs summit as well as the South Africa Investment Conference (SAIC).
The summit was intended to rope in the private sector to help with the country’s high unemployment rate, while the SAIC was held to unlock private-sector investment, which has been on a downward trend for more than a decade.