COVID-19 is having a disastrous effect on the South African economy that had already entered into recession, the Reserve Bank expects GDP to shrink by 6% adding pressure to the already high 2019 unemployment rate of 29.1% with an estimated loss of an additional one million jobs, taking the country to 7.7 million unemployed.
The lockdown will lead to a significant reduction in tax revenue at a time government has had to prioritise unplanned spending towards healthcare and economic support measures for disaster relief efforts, pushing the already high debt to GDP ratio of 62% to unsustainable levels.
What will urgently be required post-COVID-19 is a clear and coherent economic policy where government can, through targeted interventions, achieve rapid socioeconomic development that has been elusive to date. It’s clear that new regenerative thinking is required that seeks to provide long-term sustainability, is resistant to external shocks such as global economic markets and climate change and is based on maximising our abundant human and natural resources.
President Ramaphosa in his 2020 State of the Nation Address, acknowledged that cannabis farming happens throughout the country, pledging to “open up and regulate the commercial use of hemp products, providing opportunities for small-scale farmers”. Cannabis offers an opportunity unprecedented in South Africa’s history since the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886 as South Africa’s much-maligned and excluded green gold, with massive potential to birth a new sunrise industry to lift us out of economic recession, poverty and unemployment.
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