Sibanye-Stillwater Neal Froneman is heavily critical of the current state of South Africa’s economy and government – citing a key lack of leadership.
“My view is now that we are practically a failed state. It starts with inequality and poverty,” he told theHe added that this was not an issue limited to the mining sector, but was broadly applicable to South Africa as a whole.
He said that this was becoming increasingly common as the law is not enforced and there are no repercussions. He added that businesses will have to start spending more to build and maintain their own municipal and governmental services, as the government will not be capable of providing these reliably going forward.Froneman’s views add to a growing chorus of comments from government, analysts and business leaders about where the country is heading.
“If that’s not going to be a motivating factor, we can start calling South Africa a failing state because the things that define a failing state are beginning to show, where we don’t care about the poor and improving their lives.” Addressing a public lecture on Monday , Gungubele said building such a state requires strong leadership, a focus on people and strong implementation capability.