Ramaphosa destroyed more jobs in South Africa than Jacob Zuma

Renowned political economist Frans Cronje says job creation in South Africa has fallen to its lowest level under President Cyril Ramaphosa, performing significantly worse than during the administrations of Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma.

Speaking during a State of the Nation event, Cronje presented a critical assessment of Ramaphosa's economic record, focusing on declining investment levels and weak employment growth.

Cronje divided ANC governance into two distinct periods: the first 15 years under Mandela and Mbeki, which he described as a phase of strong economic expansion and service delivery, and the later period under Zuma and Ramaphosa, which he characterised as an era of stagnation.

According to Cronje, South Africa's fixed investment rate as a share of GDP stood at about 15 percent before 1994, but rose significantly during the early democratic years alongside economic growth and expanding access to services.

He noted that the number of households without electricity fell from about 49 percent in 1994 to below 20 percent by the end of Mbeki's presidency, while employment nearly doubled from around 8 million people to almost 15 million by 2008.

Cronje argued that the early ANC administrations successfully improved living standards for millions of South Africans and rejected the idea that the country experienced "jobless growth" during that period.

"Mandela and Mbeki oversaw the creation of approximately 500,000 net new jobs per year," he said.

He said the pace of job creation slowed considerably under Zuma to around 250,000 jobs annually before deteriorating further under Ramaphosa, where he claimed employment growth has struggled to exceed 100,000 new jobs per year.

Cronje attributed the weak performance to low levels of fixed investment, arguing that South Africa's investment rate remains far below the average for comparable emerging markets.

"Despite the Government of National Unity, we are a 1% growth economy with an investment rate that's half that of our emerging market peers," he said.

He also criticised efforts to market South Africa as an investment destination through conferences and public relations campaigns, saying underlying investment figures had failed to improve meaningfully.

"At the time of CR17, my colleagues and I were very sceptical that he was a reformer because it didn't match the history at all," Cronje said.

He argued that the data now supports that scepticism, claiming Ramaphosa has not succeeded in driving the reforms needed to stimulate sustained economic growth and large-scale job creation.