Cheer as we rediscover the best of South Africa

Hello everyone 

With the Rugby World Cup about to start, green and gold fever is sweeping the country and the Springboks are once again demonstrating the power of sport to unite South Africans - and to make us realise just what an amazing place we live in.

Times like this often help us to step back and see South Africa "from the outside", or as people elsewhere view us, and remind ourselves with pride of everything that we have accomplished and can show off to the world, despite our current national problems.

Just for a start, SA is a functioning democracy, characterised by an elected government, organised opposition parties, an independent judiciary, freedom of speech and association, and protection of individual rights via an outstanding Constitution. We are also not in conflict or at war with any other country, but in fact, are helping to build new alliances of nations across Africa and around the world.  

In addition, we still have huge mineral resources, a well-regulated, stable, and trusted banking and financial system, world-class scientists and medical experts, cultural diversity, spectacular scenery and wildlife, an inviting climate and some of the best value-for-money real estate available anywhere.

These are all factors that distinguish SA from dozens of other countries that are currently competing for scarce skills and investment in the chaotic and often violent post-pandemic global landscape.

But South Africa also has one additional, unassailable advantage: The best people in the world. Friendly, funny, hospitable, creative, optimistic and hugely entrepreneurial, they are also uniquely tolerant, determined and resilient to a fault. As born-and-bred South Africans, we may not see anything unusual in the way we are, or in the way we unite to support the Bokke, for example, but I think we also need to start appreciating how special that outlook on life appears to others, and how much it makes them want to be a part of our journey.

In the meanwhile, in a small world covered extensively by global media, it is not only becoming clearer every day that we are far from alone in experiencing problems such as power and water shortages, defective infrastructure, high inflation and interest rates and endemic corruption - but also that we are one of a very few countries with the will as well as the potential to address and fix these problems, while also emerging as a key strategic player in creation of a new and more balanced world economy.  

This has been underlined in recent weeks by the African Union's decision to accelerate the implementation of AFCFTA, the African Continent Free Trade Area, which will ultimately connect 1,3bn people across 55 countries with a combined GDP of $3,4 trillion. SA has played a pivotal role in launching AfCFTA and is already established as one of the most important gateways to this huge market grouping.

At the same time, international investors have noted the success of the recent BRICs conference held in SA, and the leading role the country played in the expansion of that group to include six new members - and boost its combined GDP to $ 30,75 trillion.

In short, SA is punching well above its weight in the international area now, and in anticipation of an internal renaissance to follow, many foreign and ex-pat retirees, families, business owners, and investors are already streaming into South Africa and buying homes or investing in commercial properties in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and other business hubs as well as along the Atlantic Seaboard and the Garden Route.

They see that South Africa really has a great deal to recommend it, and astute local buyers will, I believe, shortly follow their lead, especially since it seems that interest rates have now stabilised and will most likely start to decline again next year.