2010 was supposed to be South Africa’s year, but with production of everything from vuvuzelas to the 2010 World Cup mascot, Zakumi, being outsourced to China, discussions around whether increased trade with China is good for us has intensified. Sharon Davis investigates whether the ANC’s open-door policy to trade with China is something to lose sleep over.

China has overtaken Japan as the world’s second-largest economy, and is well on its way to becoming a world economic super-power. Although slowing to fend off inflation-related issues its red-hot economy, which continued to grow at around 9% during the recession, is expected to outstrip the US to become the world’s largest economy by 2030.

By 2010 China had replaced the US as South Africa’s largest trading partner. Our mineral-rich country exports USD 5.5bn a year in minerals to China and has received substantial Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) – most notably the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s USD 5.5bn investment in South Africa’s Standard Bank in October 2007, which remains the largest Chinese investment in Africa

Although KwaZulu-Natal is the third-smallest province in South Africa, occupying only 7.7% of South Africa’s land area, it is home to slightly more than 20% of the population and is the second largest provincial economy and of growing strategic and economic importance.

According to Trade and Investment KZN (TIKZN) the province contributes R324bn (at current prices) or 16.2% of South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while the Durban metropolitan region alone contributes about 12% of national GDP and the province potentially as much as 18% to 19% of national GDP according to the Durban Investment Promotion Agency (DIPA).

Manufacturing is the largest sector in the provincial economy contributing between 21% and 25% of provincial GDP, followed by the business service industry at around 18%, trade at around 18% and financial services at around 15%.

Russell Curtis acting CEO of DIPA, a municipal-run investment promotion agency, says that manufacturing has been hardest hit by the current global economic recession and that because of the large percentage it plays in KwaZulu-Natal’s economic mix, the province has been disproportionately affected.
 

South Africa’s future growth is going to be constrained as much by water, as the availability of electricity. Sharon Davis tells us more.

The importance of water for economic growth in South Africa, a largely semi-arid country, was recognised as early as the 1960s when the government started an extensive dam building programme on our major rivers to ensure a regular water supply for both agriculture and industry.

Despite these efforts, and in some cases because of them, scientists and researchers have been warning of a looming water shortage for the past 30 years, and continue to do so.

Increased economic activity, more intensive land-use practices and a growth in population have increased the demand for water while simultaneously degrading the resource; adding to pollutant pressure while removing natural storage and filtration systems like wetlands.

It’s no secret that crime in South Africa is rife, leaving us with little choice but to acknowledge that dealing with crime has become a way of life.

In releasing the police’s crime statistics for the 2008/09 financial year recently, Police Minister, Nathi Mthethwa, noted that house robberies had increased by 27 percent, while the 2007 National Victims of Crime Survey found that the number of people who feared being robbed or having someone break into their homes outnumbered those who feared other crimes, including murder and sexual assault.

According to Gareth Newham from the Gauteng Department of Community Safety, Gauteng experiences 51% of South Africa’s residential robberies, with Gauteng residents reporting an average of 20 house robberies a day during the 2007/08 financial year.