But unemployment remains near record highs and the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 3.2 percent in the first three months of 2019. Power monopoly Eskom, which generates 90 percent of the nation’s energy, has debts of $30 billion (26.5 billion euros). Its potential collapse is seen as the biggest threat to spurring growth in Africa’s most developed economy. The speech “is really not the time to be undertaking complex communications with creditors on restructuring.”South Africa’s unemployment hovers at over 27 percent — soaring to over 50 percent among young people. Mmusi Maimane, leader of the Democratic Alliance opposition party, called for Ramaphosa to take on corruption and “place the nation’s interests ahead of the ANC’s interest.”

Source: The Guardian June 20, 2019 10:30 UTC