‘State of SA’s economy keeps me awake at night’ – Ramaphosa

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa says the state of the nation’s economy and the high number of people out of work keep him awake at night.

“The state of unemployment, it is a very difficult thing to have to countenance,” Ramaphosa told reporters on Wednesday in Cape Town.
The millions of people in South Africa “who are not economically engaged in any activity: that is enough to keep me awake at night. It concerns me a great deal,” he said.

South Africa’s economy is struggling to recover from its worst contraction in almost three decades in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Growth last year was stifled by the worst riots since the end of apartheid in 1994 that left 354 people dead.

The nation’s 34.9% unemployment rate is the highest on a global list of 82 countries and the Eurozone monitored by Bloomberg.

“As I began the State of the Nation