The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) said it didn’t believe it was worth celebrating the country’s new gross domestic product (GDP) figure.
The comments came after Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reported a 0.4% increase in the first quarter GDP on Tuesday.
Manufacturing and finance were the main drivers for economic growth, while agriculture was the biggest drag on the GDP.
While the economy rebounded to pre-COVID-19 levels in the first three months of 2023, Saftu spokesperson Trevor Shaku said the latest improvement was not enough.
“The economy grew by 0.4% in the first quarter of 2023, compared to a 1.1% decline in the fourth quarter of 2022. Like we said before, the South African economy has established a trend of a zig-zag growth path from one quarter to another, which on average, annually, amounts to negligible growth.”
Shaku also tore into the central bank, saying that rising interest rates were sabotaging the economy.
“The governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, [Adrian Orr], was honest enough to admit this sinister strategy to fix the economy by stabbing the people. In November 2022, Governor Orr admitted that they were engineering a recession to get inflation down.
“This is what [governor of the South African Reserve Bank] Lesetja Kganyago was trying to do, and his efforts are already bearing terrible results as desired by them.”
-EWN
In other news – PICS: MaMkhize shows off her dream jet
As always with her inspirational posts, South African reality TV star, actress, and businesswoman MaMkhize aka Shauwn Mkhize has this time taken it to extreme heights with her dreams, showing off what she could buy in the future if all things go well, and it nothing other than, a jet which has left many inspired.
The luxurious-looking blue jet is richly built and has some Arabic inscriptions on it. Shauwn says she is excited about the dream, but friends like Somizi Mhlongo claim the jet might be a reality already. Learn More