Amid a flurry of upbeat economic news — a good medium-term budget, a stronger rand, escape from the greylist, the JSE on steroids, and progress — on paper at least — on reform of SA’s moribund rail and ports system, Ann Bernstein, head of the Centre for Development and Enterprise, tells Peter Bruce in this edition of Podcasts from the Edge, “I’m the first to welcome good news [and] we need to recognise what changes have been made [but] I don’t think we’ve turned the corner.
“I think we’re approaching the corner. And if you look at a lot of the reforms, energy’s the most important … But there’s so much more to do … we shouldn’t let our guard down. Look at the whole chessboard. There’s unemployment, which is worse than it was a year ago by some 200,000 people. And we are simultaneously watching the absolute chaos, corruption and disaster in our criminal justice system.”