Exclusive Martin Wolf: Insights on South Africa’s path to success and wake-up call for Democratic Capitalism

Loading player...
Martin Wolf, the esteemed chief economic commentator at the Financial Times, requires little introduction. Regarded as the gold standard of financial and economics journalism, Wolf’s latest book, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism serves as a wake-up call for democratic nations. In it, he highlights the faltering marriage between democracy and the market economy, exposing democratic nations to the perils of profoundly anti-democratic forces. In an exclusive interview with BizNews, Wolf delves into his background and how it has shaped his perspectives, illuminating the concerning backsliding of democracy and proposes remedies to reverse this decline ‘before it is too late’. Reflecting on South Africa, a country for which he penned his “saddest but perhaps best column” in the early 2000s, Wolf laments the predatory and non-productive elite that is not creating new wealth. The leadership’s unbelievably difficult task, he says, has deteriorated. He emphasises that South Africa’s path to success necessitates the economy to grow at 5% a year and the incomes of the poorest should grow at 7or 8%. - Linda van TilburgYour early morning brew of the BizNews Insider keeps you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here - https://bit.ly/3lfVRYP. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
12 Jul 2023 10AM English South Africa Investing · Business News

Other recent episodes

NdB Sunday Show | Mzo Mpolase: How low can SA go?

In today's NdB Sunday Show with Chris Steyn, Political Analyst Mzo Mpolase slams President Cyril Ramaphosa's latest utterance on the looming loss of AGOA. "You're running a country here, you're not running some ANC ideological office. This is the fate of the economy, the fate of many jobs, which you…
25 Oct 9AM 27 min

BN Edge | Mini-budget unpacked, with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana

Two days after telling Parliament that South Africa had emerged from the fiscal wilderness, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana gave up part of his weekend to explain what that did and didn't mean. He conceded the tax burden had reached levels no finance minister should be comfortable with, and that growth…
25 Oct 9AM 20 min

BN Edge | Lesaka is facing hard questions. Ali Mazanderani is answering them

Lesaka grew out of Net1, whose subsidiary's social grants contract ended up before the Constitutional Court. Now it wants to take deposits from the same grant recipients it lends to. In a follow-up to their strategy conversation, Alec Hogg put the harder questions to executive chairman Ali Mazanderani: who carries…
23 Oct 8AM 37 min

BN Edge | Donald MacKay unpacks the bureaucratic black hole in SA trade

A tariff investigation in South Africa is meant to take six months. Donald MacKay, whose XA Global Trade Advisors released its latest import duty report this week, told Alec Hogg the average had stretched to 40 months, and that the oldest open case was old enough to start school. He…
23 Oct 7AM 24 min