The South African economy does not have the stamina for the “long game” for which President Cyril Ramaphosa has seemingly opted to turn the country around. According to economist Dawie Roodt, instead of making the necessary structural changes and adopting new (and muchneeded) macro-economic policies, Ramaphosa is using state institutions to address the inefficiency and corruption within state organs. “We have very real economic challenges and it is not a pretty picture. We are going to need an extraordinary attempt to save the country from economic collapse.” Roodt said all indications at present were that Ramaphosa’s government was not working fast enough towards implementing change. “South Africa’s unemployment and poverty levels will continue to rise and it is highly unlikely that the economy will perform better than 1% in the next few years,” he said. “I predict that economic growth will remain between 0 and 1% for the foreseeable future. The reason is that the wrong macro-economic policies are being implemented and the government is undermining the economy at various levels.” Roodt said business could expect monetary policy to remain on the tight side thanks to the re-appointment of Lesetja Kganyago as governor of the Reserve Bank.