Most migrants to South Africa come from the SADC region for employment
Labour migration, the movement of individuals across the borders for employment purposes, is a fundamental aspect of the global economy and has profound social, economic, and political implications. According to the report, Migration profile report for South Africa: A country profile 2023 released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), most migrants entering South Africa originate read more »
Mbalo Brief – March 2024
South Africa has been experiencing drier and hotter weather in the last few months. According to the South African Weather Service (SAWS) the heatwave that started on Sunday, 19 November 2023 and reached its peak on 27 November, broke records for being the hottest November in the country. On the 27th of November, more than read more »
Tourism: the state of post-COVID-19 recovery
The economic fallout from COVID-19 affected many industries, including South Africa’s tourism sector. A decline in revenue from domestic (resident) visitors and inbound (non-resident) visitors, exacerbated by stringent travel restrictions, saw a fall in tourism trips, tourism-related expenditure, and employment. The sector has shown signs of recovering from the pandemic’s repercussions. The latest Tourism Satellite read more »
Economic wrap-up for February 2024
February is a highlight of Stats SA’s publication schedule, with the release of various economic indicators for December concluding the results for the previous year. The preliminary data point to a lacklustre 2023, with several indicators in the red (Figure 1). Mining production, electricity generation, construction (the value of buildings completed as reported by large municipalities), read more »
Lifting the veil on violence against children in South Africa
A report released by Statistics South Africa titled Child Series Volume II: Crime Against Children shows that rape cases for children increased by 6,3 percentage points between 2015/16 and 2019/20, whilst both common assault and assault with grievous bodily harm (GBH) decreased by 2,1 and 3,5 percentage points respectively. Moreover, sexual assault cases for children read more »
February 2024
South Africa will have its seventh democratic elections in 2024. Every five years, South Africa holds national and provincial elections to elect the new National Assembly and provincial legislatures in each province. The 2024 national and provincial elections date will be announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in due course. In terms of the Constitution, elections read more »
International tourism to reach pre-pandemic levels.
Tourist arrivals in South Africa demonstrated a positive trend, with improvements in the numbers recorded from month to month during the period spanning 2021 to 2023. In December 2023, 3,5 million travellers were recorded at South African ports of entry/exit, surpassing the figures for both November 2023, which stood at 2,6 million, and December 2022, read more »
The shift in government spending patterns over time
There is so much need but not enough money. Often faced with hard decisions on where to allocate scarce resources, governments usually have their own unique spending priorities. The South African government spent R2 187 billion (or R2,19 trillion) in the 2021/2022 fiscal year. This was R83 billion more than the R2 104 billion recorded in 2020/2021. Stats SA’s Financial statistics read more »
Metal ores push up mining turnover
The mining industry’s contribution to total turnover in the South African formal business sector has increased over the years. A comprehensive time series, available from the Annual Financial Statistics (AFS) statistical release, provides a breakdown of how the turnover pie has shifted over the years. The survey reference period for the latest AFS (i.e. AFS read more »
GDP weakens in the third quarter
After two consecutive quarters of growth, South African real gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0,2% in the third quarter (July–September) of 2023.1 The contributions to the performance of the economy were evenly spread between the industries on the production side of the economy. The contributions ranged from -0,3 of a percentage point to +0,1 read more »