Africa-Press – South-Africa. The ANC’s recently unveiled ten-point plan to boost South Africa’s economy, while workable in theory, will not work if existing governance issues and bureaucratic constraints continue.
To address this, and make the plan workable in practice, Aluma Capital chief economist Frederick Mitchell proposed combining the ANC’s plan with an alternative pathway.
This pathway complements the ANC’s plan but calls for more dramatic measures, like scrapping Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies and reducing regulatory constraints.
Mitchell explained that the ANC’s plan presents a step towards stabilisation, emphasising strengthening government capacity and addressing energy, infrastructure, and industrial bottlenecks.
He said this comes as the country faces significant economic challenges that threaten South Africa’s stability and future prosperity.
“Over the past decade, sluggish growth, high unemployment – particularly among the youth – and infrastructure decay have become critical issues,” he said.
“These problems are compounded by inconsistent policies, energy shortages, and a prevailing uncertainty in the investment climate.”
Therefore, key initiatives of the ANC’s plan include leveraging electricity tariffs and transmission investments to stimulate economic activity, revitalising the freight and logistics sectors, and rebuilding the chrome and manganese industries.
“These are vital steps considering South Africa’s role as a major exporter of mineral commodities and its dependency on efficient logistics,” Mitchell said.
In addition, the ANC proposed expanding local economic development, public employment, and SME support, with the aim to create jobs and empower small businesses.
Mitchell said establishing the “Economic War Room” proposed in the plan is intended to ensure accountability and swift implementation.
“Importantly, efforts to diversify trade partners and expand exports are strategic moves to reduce reliance on a handful of markets,” he said.
However, he pointed to critics who argue that persistent governance issues, including corruption, policy inconsistency, and infrastructure neglect, may hamper these initiatives.
“Past policies such as broad-based BEE have sometimes created inefficiencies and deterred investment,” Mitchell said.
The Bureau for Economic Research’s Tracey-Lee Solomon explained that, while many of the ANC’s proposals are commendable, few are new. She added that implementation, rather than planning, also remains key.
Mitchell explained that this illustrates the importance of refining strategies to not only focus on state-led solutions but also foster a competitive, investor-friendly environment.
He said that while the ANC’s ten-point plan rightly targets critical sectors and government capacity, real progress depends on implementing reforms that free enterprise from excessive bureaucratic constraints.
An alternative
Aluma Capital chief economist Frederick Mitchell
Mitchell pointed to a set of reforms proposed in the Alternative Economic Blueprint that complements the ANC’s plan and offers a promising pathway toward sustainable growth, job creation, and economic freedom.
In contrast to the ANC’s plan, the Alternative Economic Blueprint focuses on economic liberalisation, property rights, and reduced regulatory constraints.
“It emphasises expanding trade access, especially to critical markets like the US, reassessing laws around expropriation, and lowering taxes to spur consumer spending and investment,” Mitchell explained.
“It advocates for the scrapping of BEE and diversity mandates in favour of merit-based entrepreneurship, creating a more equitable environment for business growth.”
This comes amidst increased calls for BEE regulations in South Africa to be reconfigured or scrapped entirely, with the latest calls coming from Trade Minister Parks Tau and former president Kgalema Motlanthe.
The call from Tau and Motlanthe to review the policy seeks to remove loopholes that have been exploited by well-connected individuals to ensure they benefit from BEE deals at the expense of others.
Mitchell added that labour reforms and tackling crime and corruption are also central to this blueprint’s vision. These reforms are critical to enable a more competitive and secure environment for entrepreneurs.
Mitchell believes that combining the ANC’s infrastructure and industrial focus with the blueprints’ call for liberalisation and property rights reform could unlock the full potential of South Africa’s economy.
“Achieving sustainable growth requires a pragmatic synthesis of both strategies – building on the ANC’s initiatives while embracing the reforms advocated by the Alternative Blueprint,” he said.
“This would involve maintaining vital infrastructure projects and industrial revitalisation, but framing them within a broader policy environment that prioritises property rights, free-market principles, and corruption eradication.”
Several experts have warned that South Africa’s unfriendly trading environment significantly hampers growth.
Earlier in 2025, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) found that South Africa came last in a ranking of the ease of doing business in 50 countries.
The organisation said that if South Africa could even just achieve an ease of doing business equal to the average, the country’s economic growth rate would double.
In the World Bank’s latest report on South Africa, the lender also said that strengthening market competition and more efficient institutions are low-hanging fruit for the country.
The World Bank said this is one of the major reasons behind the country’s high unemployment rate and the difficulty some South Africans have in finding stable and productive jobs in the country.
The bank said the burden on South African institutions has become excessive, for businesses, citizens and for public administration.
It recommended strengthening and broadening market competition in South Africa by easing the regulatory burden on businesses as a simple way to drive short-term results.
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