Finnovex South Africa 2026 concluded on a high note, delivering a resounding success and firmly establishing itself as one of the most powerful and outcome-driven financial services gatherings on the continent. Organized by Exibex Group, the summit brought together an influential community of 400+ senior decision-makers, 40+ renowned speakers, and 10+ strategic sponsors, creating a dynamic ecosystem of banks, fintech innovators, regulators, and technology leaders all under one roof…….Continue reading….
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The formal economy of South Africa has its beginnings in the arrival of Dutch settlers in 1652, originally sent by the Dutch East India Company to establish a provisioning station for passing ships. As the colony increased in size, with the arrival of Huguenots and German colonists, some of the colonists were set free to pursue commercial farming, leading to the dominance of agriculture in the economy.
At the end of the 18th century, the British annexed the colony. This led to the Great Trek, spreading farming deeper into the mainland, as well as the establishment of the independent Afrikaner Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. In 1870 diamonds were discovered in Kimberley, while in 1886 some of the world’s largest gold deposits were discovered in the Witwatersrand region of Transvaal, quickly transforming the economy into a resource-dominated one.
The British annexed the area as a result of the Second Boer War which saw the deployment of scorched earth tactics against Boer non-combatants. South Africa also entered a period of industrialisation during this time, including the organisation of the first South African trade unions. The country soon started putting laws distinguishing between different races in place.
In 1948 the National Party won the national elections, and immediately started implementing an even stricter race-based policy named Apartheid, in an attempt to shelter the original white society from a never-ending increase in the black population. The policy was widely criticised and led to crippling sanctions being placed against the country in the 1980s.
South Africa held its first non-racial elections in 1994, leaving the newly all-African elected African National Congress (ANC) government the daunting task of trying to restore order to an economy harmed by sanctions, while also integrating the previously disadvantaged segment of the population into it. The government refrained from resorting to economic populism. Inflation was brought down, public finances were stabilised, and some foreign capital was attracted.
However, growth was still subpar. At the start of 2000, then President Thabo Mbeki vowed to promote economic growth and foreign investment by relaxing restrictive labour laws, stepping up the pace of privatisation, raising governmental spending and cutting interest rates sharply from 1998 levels. His policies faced strong opposition from organised labour. From 2004 onward economic growth picked up significantly; both employment and capital formation increased.
In April 2009, amid fears that South Africa would soon join much of the rest of the world in the late-2000s recession, Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni and Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel differed on the matter: whereas Manuel foresaw a quarter of economic growth, Mboweni predicted further decline: “technically,” he said, “that’s a recession.” In 2009 the Nobel-Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz warned South Africa that inflation targeting should be a secondary concern amid the 2008 financial crisis.
South Africa, unlike other emerging markets, has struggled through the late 2000s recession, and the recovery has been largely led by private and public consumption growth, while export volumes and private investment have yet to fully recover. The long-term potential growth rate of South Africa under the current policy environment has been estimated at 3.5%. Per capita GDP growth has proved mediocre, though improving, growing by 1.6% a year from 1994 to 2009, and by 2.2% over the 2000–09 decade, compared to world growth of 3.1% over the same period.
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