Property rights risks hamper South Africa's global competitiveness

The 2018 report places South Africa at 67 out of 140 countries.

Mauritius retains its top spot in Sub-Saharan Africa, ranked at 49^th, again followed by South Africa.

North West University economist, Professor Raymond Parsons, says in the light of political and economic developments in South Africa in recent years, it’s not unexpected that the country has become less competitive in the international arena.

“It’s not good news, and once again several red flags have been raised as to what needs to be addressed.”

The report shows that the South African economy has continued to struggle with issues such as co-operation in labour-employer relations (ranked at 136), time to start a business (128) security (132) and health (125).

Parsons says South Africa’s leaders will have to seriously ask why these long standing issues still hamper the country’s economic global competitiveness.

“We now have an opportunity because of the political changes, to try and look at issues like for example labour relations.”

There’s specific concern about the impact of discussions around land expropriation without compensation.

“Our ranking on the level of property rights has fallen from 56 to 97. So, that’s a signal that we need to manage this whole debate around land reform – which we need – we need to manage is sensibly.”

Parsons warns that government is moving at too slow a rate to address the problems plaguing economic growth.

On the positive, South Africa’s strengths have been identified as the large market size, good infrastructure and a well-developed financial system.

Parsons says there’s no reason for South Africa to not rise to the top of the Sub-Saharan countries once again.

“We were at the top. If you go back over 10 or 15 years, we were on nr 35 originally. It’s a question of us regaining ground that we’ve lost. We have the potential. We’ve made mistakes and we are paying for it.”

Read the whole report here: