South Africa Can Achieve 3% Growth, Discovery CEO Gore Says
Author: Khuleko Siwele, Decusatio
South Africa can achieve economic growth of 3% if key industries begin to perform better, Discovery Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Adrian Gore said. He identified mining, tourism, agriculture and infrastructure as sectors that could help drive growth. Gore was speaking at a review of his new book, The Four Principles: Multiply Your Impact in Life and Leadership, hosted by Brunswick in Johannesburg.
The economy is currently growing at about 1% to 1.5%, but the country has already done the work needed in some sectors, Gore said.
He further said, “If we get certain industries to actually fire, like mining, we’ve done the work. We’ve seen with mining, tourism, agriculture and infrastructure, if you do the numbers, that should take us to 3%.” Gore said that reaching the target is critical to preventing further job losses, arguing that growth below 3% would lead to rising unemployment.
“There’s no alternative to getting 3%,” he said. “I don’t really care if we fail; I’m going to go to my death to try and get to 3% growth because I can tell you it’s the only thing that’s going to create employment.”
Gore said economic growth should be the overriding consideration in government policy and decision-making.
“Whatever we do, whether it’s policy or anything, if it doesn’t create jobs and growth, then don’t do it, and if it does, do more of it,” he said.
He joked that his commitment to the target was so strong that he was making his chairmanship of Business Leadership South Africa contingent on achieving 3% growth. “If we don’t get it, you can fire me,” Gore said.
South Africa’s unemployment rate is one of the world’s highest, with about 8.5 million people out of work. The continent’s biggest economy is ranked the most unequal country by the Thomas Piketty-backed World Inequality Lab. Economic growth has stagnated, averaging less than 1% per year over the past decade.
The government-business partnership was established in 2023 to address electricity shortages, logistics bottlenecks and financial crime. It will now focus on accelerating growth in infrastructure, mining, tourism, agriculture and agro-processing. The state is targeting 3 trillion rand ($186 billion) of investment and 1 million jobs by 2030 as part of the new phase.
