South Africa needs to significantly increase its economic growth to ensure social stability, with growth rates of between 2% and 3% required.
If the country cannot attain higher growth, its severe inequality, which has worsened as South Africa’s economic growth has stalled, could reach a boiling point and spark unrest.
Investec chief investment strategist Chris Holdsworth said it is critical that South Africa attains faster economic growth. Speaking to Newzroom Afrika on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Holdsworth explained that South Africa’s economic growth would need to more than double from levels seen over the past decade.Just to ensure social stability, we’re going to need GDP growth of 2 to 3% at least, possibly more,” he said.
Holdsworth’s view echoes perspectives shared by other experts who have warned that South Africa is on a treacherous path.
In October 2025, former Goldman Sachs Sub-Saharan Africa CEO Colin Coleman said South Africa desperately needs to improve service delivery and revive its economic growth to remove the conditions that have produced a sharp rise in criminality and unrest. Investec chief investment strategist Chris Holdsworth said it is critical that South Africa attains faster economic growth.
Speaking to Newzroom Afrika on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Holdsworth explained that South Africa’s economic growth would need to more than double from levels seen over the past decade.
“Just to ensure social stability, we’re going to need GDP growth of 2 to 3% at least, possibly more,” he said.
Holdsworth’s view echoes perspectives shared by other experts who have warned that South Africa is on a treacherous path.
In October 2025, former Goldman Sachs Sub-Saharan Africa CEO Colin Coleman said South Africa desperately needs to improve service delivery and revive its economic growth to remove the conditions that have produced a sharp rise in criminality and unrest.
“At the current rate at which South Africa is imploding and the rate of increase in unhappiness, unemployment, and criminality, with the amount of emerging scandals, I cannot see an outcome where we do not call an early election,” Coleman said.
“This is because the population is likely to want to have a renewed mandate for a government that they trust, and there has been a significant breaking of trust.”
“If this continues, it is going to produce pressure upon pressure, which I think will produce a boiling point earlier than the 2029 elections.”
The loss of trust Coleman warned of is the result of over a decade of economic stagnation, with the country’s GDP growth having averaged 0.8% for the past ten years.
While the country’s fortunes are expected to improve in 2026, with 1.4% GDP growth projected, this is not close to the level South Africa needs to meaningfully address unemployment and inequality in the country.
