With only moderate expectations for South Africa’s economic growth this year, especially amid political uncertainty ahead of the national elections, part-time lecturer at the Wits School of Governance Professor Ebrahim Fakir argues that “it cannot be ‘business as usual’”.

Speaking at the University of Stellenbosch Business School’s (USB’s) executive development and the Institute for Future Research’s joint business knowledge seminar, held in Sandton this month, he said this year would be distinguished by several themes.

Some of these included an expected stabilisation period, while service delivery and certainty surrounding government institutions remained in limbo. Accountability, oversight, ethics and morality would also continue to play a key role in the sector.

In a country faced with high levels of unemployment (27.5%), poverty and a gloomy outlook for gross domestic product growth, USB faculty member Dr Nthabiseng Moleko said that, even though South Africa was “clustered in the same category as other developing countries”, its growth levels were not high enough to sustain the levels of development needed to push the economy forward.

She highlighted that the country’s agriculture and mining sectors, which had been imparted on by increasing climate change risks, such as droughts, and volatile commodity prices, would, under normal circumstances, drive growth, but had been unable to do so in recent years.

To turn the situation around, Moleko told delegates at the seminar, an increasing shift towards not only improving trade but also increasing foreign direct investment would be imperative for South Africa to avoid a disaster.

Akin to this is an increased focus on and continued improvement in the country’s education, which both Moleko and African Capacity Building Foundation executive secretary Professor Emmanuel Nnadozie believe is critical moving forward.

However, Nnadozie warned that education, especially at tertiary level, was “not the silver bullet for all of South Africa’s problems”.

During his presentation, he welcomed the drafting of the country’s National Development Plan (NDP) – a long-term development plan which stipulates how South Africa intends to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality, while also accelerating growth in the economy.

While its goals were “very desirable”, Nnadozie stated, within the NDP framework, increasing focus had to be placed on improving the quality of education in the country, so that the country would be in a position to compete on a globally competitive standard.

He explained that higher and better education would contribute to a rise in income, which would, in turn, impact on poverty rates, while higher productivity would have a favourable impact on the local economy.

In a nutshell, Nnadozie said that, while progress had been made, challenges remained, especially considering that skills development initiatives were not always delivering the desired outcomes, or that some graduates were not able to apply their learning to real-world situations.

Not all was lost, however, as he highlighted that basic education had been on an upward trend, with improving matric pass rates year-on-year, “even though the margin is sometimes just 2%”.

The number of university graduates and learners who had attained the national senior certificate had also increased.

In the interim, he pointed out, issues such as the quality of primary education, mathemathics and science education, as well as the availability of scientists and engineers locally, would need to be addressed before significant progress could be anticipated.

Institutional development and education delivery in the form of teaching, as well as better educational outcomes and the capacity to implement policy locally, would require attention.