Nathan, who was a leading analyst before founding 10X, added that “the inward focus, the bickering and the political posturing may benefit one or two politicians, or individuals, but at the expense of the entire country”.
As South African businesspeople issued statements denying they donated to Ramaphosa’s campaign in 2017, known as CR17, or explained why they might have given funds, Nathan said South Africans needed the president and the country to start working on positive growth initiatives.
“There are no winners in an environment that continuously delivers negative real economic growth (that is on a per-person basis) and that sheds jobs on a month-by-month basis,” said Nathan, urging the country’s leadership to focus on promoting a more growth-oriented and business- friendly environment.
“South Africans are getting poorer and, because income is skewed upwards, the poorest of the poor are being hit hardest," he said. “It is a crying shame that the government does not focus on these types of issues, or doesn’t have either the will, the bandwidth, the time, or whatever it is."
Nathan highlighted South Africa’s worsening unemployment rate as a major cause for concern. He said South Africa had more people unemployed in absolute terms than the whole of the United States and the United Kingdom.
“These are issues that affect millions of people, not one or two. It is quite ridiculous that none of the political parties see this. People are fighting over power to benefit a small minority at the expense of the majority.”
