South Africa today: Growth, employment, reform and leadership – critical challenges

Join us for a discussion with Ann Bernstein on South Africa’s political and economic future following the formation of the country’s new Government of National Unity (GNU) in July 2024. After the African National Congress, in power since 1994, failed to secure a parliamentary majority, the GNU came into office promising to accelerate reform, restore state capacity and place South Africa on a higher growth path.

The conversation will explore why progress has remained slow, with corruption, unemployment and institutional weakness continuing to undermine economic and social development. It will also focus on the mounting crisis in Johannesburg, where political instability, financial mismanagement and declining service delivery have raised serious concerns about the future of South Africa’s largest city.

Bernstein founded the Centre for Development and Enterprise in 1995 and has become one of South Africa’s leading advocates for economic and institutional reform. She writes extensively on growth, unemployment, education, governance and the role of business in development, and regularly convenes conversations across political and institutional divides on the country’s most pressing challenges. She will reflect on the obstacles facing South Africa today, what is required to generate growth and employment, and whether the 2026 local government elections could provide an opportunity for political and economic renewal.

Meet our speaker and chair

Ann Bernstein (@annbernsteinSA) is the founder and executive director of the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE), South Africa’s leading development think tank. She is the author of The Case for Business in Developing Economies (Penguin 2010), which received favourable reviews in South African media, the Economist, Financial Times and Forbes and received the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award for the book by the Atlas Foundation in Washington DC.

Andrés Velasco (@AndresVelasco) is Professor of Public Policy and Dean of the School of Public Policy at LSE. In 2017-19 he was a member of the G20 Eminent Persons Group. During 2015-16 he co-chaired the Global Panel on the Future of the Multilateral Lending Institutions. In 2013-16 he was a member of the Global Oceans Commission.

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