With watershed elections in South Africa in a few weeks, it is not surprising the economy in general and business in particular feature prominently in the political campaign. It's the economy, stupid, as former US President Bill Clinton would say. Yet there are wider issues at stake. "Capitalism " is on the back foot, domestically and globally, with strong antibusiness sentiment apparent in several countries. Economic history tells us this is not the first time market-orientated economies have gone on the defensive, nor will it be the last. This the view of Prof Raymond Parsons form the North-West University Business School in the linked article written for and first published in Business Day. 

The Jobs Fund is one of the most successful government programmes, says Agbiz CEO Dr John Purchase. "We have articulated as such in the Jobs Summit process, as well as in the ADA development process where we wish to follow similar principles."  

Najwah Allie-Edries, Deputy Director General for Employment Facilitation at National Treasury's Jobs Fund, spoke to Fin24 in an edited interview about what goes on behind the scenes and how to build an inclusive economy.

Given that the election of 8 May is unlikely even marginally to change the South African social a nd economic reality, spelling out IMF involvement becomes a post-election imperative, writes Denis Worrall,  South African ambassador in London.  "Like so many others I have listen ed to several presentations on the likely results of the election and speculations on the respective voting performances at national and provincial level of the different parties. Something that has been missing in these exercises is that this election or more specifically its outcome is almost irrelevant to the state the country is in." Please click here for the article written for and first published on News24.

It has been 14 weeks since the first case of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in the high surveillance area of South Africa's FMD free zone was detected. A joint statement issued by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the livestock industry, reports that there have been no new cases of FMD detected in the disease management area declared in Limpopo in the last ten weeks and thus, three incubation periods have lapsed. Intensive surveillance demonstrated that the virus did not spread and that the outbreak has been contained. Please click press release to peruse.

The 2019 Fertilizer Association of Southern Africa (FERTASA) Annual Congress kicked-off on Thursday 11 April with the beautiful backdrop of Spier's conference centre in Stellenbosch. There was a very strong focus on regulation as the speakers included Prof Nic Vink who spoke to the macro environment required for agricultural growth, Annelize Crosby from Agri SA who spoke about expropriation without compensation, Christi Venter from Global Gap, Michel Prud'homme from the International Fertilizer Association and Jonathan Mudzunga from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF). Agbiz was fortunate enough to be called upon to speak about regulation in the industry, with a special focus on the draft Fertilizer Bill. Agbiz head of Legal Intelligence Theo Boshoff gives feedback in the linked article.

While South Africa's headline food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation accelerated to 3.1% in March 2019 from 2.9% in the previous month, the food category remained unchanged at 2.3% for the third consecutive month. This is on the back of lower meat prices, which continued to offset higher prices of grain-related products. However, this is a trend that is likely to change in the coming months as underlying data in the meat industry points to potential price increases in the near term. As a result, we still think South Africa's food and non-alcoholic beverages price inflation could average about 5% y/y in 2019.Agibz chief economist Wandile Sihlobo provides more insight in the linked article.

It is easy to overlook the importance of the South African agricultural sector if one only views it from its share contribution to the GDP, which has declined from 4.2% in the 1996 to 2.6% in 2017. What is often not captured in this narrative, however, is the fact that the value of the agricultural sector has grown by almost 50%, from R50.5 billion to R75.2 billion over the same period. In other words, South Africa's primary agricultural sector is not becoming insignificant - it is only that other sectors, particularly the services sector, have grown at a faster pace. Read Wandile Sihlobo's views in the linked blogpost.

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