Читать книгу New South African Review 1 - Anthony Butler - Страница 7

The central argument of domestic business, foreign investors, the international financial institutions and the major foreign governments (notably the US and UK) backing the political transition was that the level of economic growth required by post-apartheid South Africa could only be attained through engagement with the global economy and the access this would give to continually advancing high technology (Habib et al 1998: 106). Yet the reality is that the opening up of the economy has had highly contradictory outcomes; first, the economy has become far more subject to short-term global financial influences without; second, an accompanying level of diversification; third, while access to new technology has improved, South Africa’s technological advance is shaky; and fourth, critically, the disappointingly low level of economic growth which has been achieved has been grossly insufficient in providing for the employment needs of the country while being accompanied by high levels of inequality. These are all in themselves huge topics, but briefly: