{"id":838428,"date":"2025-09-29T18:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=838428"},"modified":"2025-09-29T18:24:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T16:24:41","slug":"sobering-message-from-one-of-south-africas-top-ceos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/838428\/sobering-message-from-one-of-south-africas-top-ceos\/","title":{"rendered":"Sobering message from one of South Africa’s top CEOs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Remgro CEO Jannie Durand says that slow economic growth and high unemployment are likely to persist unless South Africa adopts pro-growth policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Durand shared his views about the South African economy and the country\u2019s business sector during an interview with Biznews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In South Africa, the economy is not growing, there is high unemployment, and consumers are not spending. This does not bode well for the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we see in all the industries we operate in is overcapacity. The production lines, for example, are not used to capacity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This situation means there is no need to build new factories, which, in turn, means that there will be no additional employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He highlighted an important economic indicator and measure of the middle class for South Africa: the number of people on medical aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe number of people on medical aid has not increased over the last five years. The memberships may have been stable, but people are buying down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply put, the situation is going backwards. This aligns with South Africa\u2019s GDP per capita, which has shown that citizens have been getting poorer over the last 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see the situation getting much better in the short term, unless South Africa gets pro-growth policies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This makes life difficult for Remgro, which operates in South Africa, as it is difficult for companies to show meaningful growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRemgro is a reflection of South Africa, which means that it is closely linked to the growth of the South African economy,\u201d Durand said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenging environment goes beyond a tough trading environment. It also makes mergers and acquisitions difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that the volatile environment in the South African and global market forces them to put a large risk premium on buying new assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, due to the high risk premium, the numbers do not always work to be able to strike a deal or make an acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are positive signs in South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Remgro CEO Jannie Durand <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Durand said there are positive signs with the government and private sector joining forces to address some of South Africa\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am involved in the workstreams in the government where we talk about matters such as energy, logistics, crime, and corruption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The support of the private sector and the resources it is making available have helped to alleviate some of the problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLoad-shedding has improved dramatically. However, logistics linked to the railways and Transnet are still a challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are making significant progress behind the scenes to address crime and corruption in South Africa,\u201d Durand said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are helping to get South Africa off the grey list. We are also making a digital evidence unit available to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said there are many initiatives behind the scenes to address the country\u2019s challenges and get the economy going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, while there is progress, the Remgro CEO highlighted that it takes time to see the results of their initiatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remgro CEO Jannie Durand says that slow economic growth and high unemployment are likely to persist unless South Africa adopts pro-growth policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":838430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[18849,4205,2591],"class_list":["post-838428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-biznews","tag-jannie-durand","tag-remgro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838428","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=838428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":838429,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838428\/revisions\/838429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}