the country\u2019s credit grade to junk status.<\/span><\/p>\nAccording to NWW’s South Africa 2017 Wealth Report, the country has a total of 40,400 dollar millionaires, and has many as 2,130 individuals with more than R125 million in their account.<\/p>\n
Prior data showed that at the end of 2015, there were 38,500 millionaires in South Africa \u2013 down 18% from\u00a046,800 recorded at the end of 2014.<\/p>\n
NWW’s data suggested that up until the end of 2015, as many as 19,000 of the country\u2019s wealthiest individuals – predominantly white – had bailed on the country over the past 15 years.<\/p>\n
The report cited turmoil in South Africa, security concerns and optimizing education of children as the primary reasons for the mass exodus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is likely that the South African government will continue to push Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies until previously disadvantaged groups make up at least 80% of the country\u2019s HWNIs,\u201d the 2016 report said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect this to happen by 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of its latest report, the advisory firm examined major risks facing the country over the next decade.<\/p>\n
Major risks include:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Rising government debt<\/strong>, which stands at US$161 billion in 2016 (51% of GDP), up from US$76 billion (28% of GDP) in 2006. That\u2019s a US$85 billion increase in 10 years. This rise is mainly due to Eskom borrowing large amounts of money.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- A rising level of government regulation in the local business sector<\/strong>, which makes it unnecessarily complicated to start and run businesses in the country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Student protests<\/strong> – most students in SA expect free tertiary education which seems unrealistic considering that only a few countries worldwide have this and the ones that do are very wealthy on a per capita basis (example Sweden).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Poorly run government parastatals<\/strong> such as Eskom, SAA, the Post Office and Telkom (semi-private), which are susceptible to corruption and inefficiency. These corporations are also heavily in debt and a drain on taxpayer funding. Some would even go so far as to describe them as a slush fund for people with government connections.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Re-distribution of wealth agenda<\/strong> – being pushed by the EFF and by sections of the ANC. These policies could undermine ownership rights. Ownership rights are a critical component of successful wealth creation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- A high crime rate<\/strong>. Rape, hijacking and armed robbery are the main problem areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- High tax rates<\/strong>, which deter business formation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- A rising number of strikes and labor action<\/strong> over the past few years, which has impacted heavily on certain parts of economy, most notably the mining and utilities sectors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- The unemployment rate in South Africa, which exceeds 27%<\/strong>. This is well above the emerging market average and the highest among the top 40 economies worldwide. This is partly due to a relatively high degree of labor market rigidity in South Africa with trade unions having a strong presence in the country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Poorly run municipal services<\/strong> – water, electricity, rubbish collection and sewage. Over-billing has also become a problem over the past year as municipalities seek to get out of debt.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Deteriorating transport infrastructure<\/strong> and increased traffic congestion \u2013 traffic lights are often broken.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nRead: How many South Africans have more than R125 million in their bank account<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New World Wealth has identified a number of risks facing high net worth individuals living in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":168963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9880],"tags":[26,6440],"class_list":["post-168945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wealth","tag-headline","tag-new-world-wealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168945"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169069,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168945\/revisions\/169069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}