Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman said in an interview this week that he believed South Africa was ‘practically a failed state’.
Froneman said in the interview with Daily Maverick: ‘My view is now that we are practically a failed state. It starts with inequality and poverty.’
He warned that there was ‘a lack of people at the highest levels taking proper action against lawlessness, against crime, and it filters all the way down through the system. But, ultimately, because there is no economic growth, people are poor, people are angry, and, of course, there is a lack of capacity to deliver services.’
Also this week, Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane warned against the ‘culture of self-enrichment’ that was undermining promises of a better life for all.
He said: ‘We have to remind our leaders – and I’m speaking as a South African – who are in government, in public service and politicians to get off your high horse and do what we have to do to ensure we create access and a conducive environment for people’s lives to change.
‘If that’s not going to be a motivating factor, we can start calling South Africa a failing state because the things that define a failing state are beginning to show, where we don’t care about the poor and improving their lives.’
BusinessTech reported that Mogajane’s comments came after the Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA) published a report warning that South Africa risked becoming a failed state if its lack of decisive, ethical, and courageous leadership persisted.
The report said: ‘If South Africa continues to experience a continued breakdown of ethical and legal principles, unmanageable societal unrest and breakdown of the rule of law, complete economic collapse becomes almost inevitable.’
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