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南非目前状态
在当今世界中，唯一永恒的事情就是变化。为了应对变革的步伐，管理层在我们的生活中起着一个非常重要的作用。
工商管理硕士的课程是获得在这方面所需要知识的最佳途径之一。全球国家报告是课程的重要组成部分。它融合了实际应用的理论知识。它反映了管理的工作原理是如何让我们作为一个团队携手共进，发展各种分析技巧。
在我们的职权范围内的国家是南非。该项目报告中研究了该国的经济背景和它的各个行业，同时与印度的情况进行比较。
最后，报告尝试对所有读者提供帮助。
致谢
全球国家报告是一个团队的努力，很多人成功地完成了它。我们借此机会在这里要感谢他们每个人。
我们要感谢我们的董事，亚太区首席技术官Matt Ruparel博士到所有的项目指南，其无缝的支持与合作给了我们这个平台，以提高我们的技能。我们还要感谢我们的教职员工，Sneha舒克拉博士，教授Shweta Bambuwala，教授朱希沙阿教授NEHA Rohera和弥陀教授夏尔马给了我们正确的方向。
South Africas Current Status Economics Essay
The only thing permanent in todays world is change. In order to cope with the pace of change management holds a very important place in our lives.
The course of MBA is one of the best ways to acquire the required knowledge in this context. Global Country Report is a crucial part of the curriculum. It blends theoretical knowledge with practical applications. It mirrors how management works by making us work together as a team and develop various analytical skills.
The country under our purview is South Africa. This project report has studied the economy of the country in context and its various industries while simultaneously comparing it with the Indian scenario.
Finally the report attempts to be helpful to all the readers as well.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Global Country Report being a team effort, a lot of people have contributed in successfully completing it. We take this opportunity here to extend our gratitude towards each one of them.
We would begin by thanking our Director, Dr. Hitesh Ruparel for giving us this platform to enhance our skills and also to all the project guides for their seamless support and cooperation. We would also like to thank our faculty members, Dr. Sneha Shukla, Prof Shweta Bambuwala, Prof Juhi Shah, Prof Neha Rohera and Prof Amita Sharma who gave us the right direction and guided us all through. At the same time they encouraged our efforts and motivated us.
Finally, a sincere vote of thanks to everyone who directly or indirectly helped us in this report.
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER - 1 INTRODUCTION TO SOUTH AFRICA INTRODUCTION
South Africa is formally the Republic of South Africa and a country situated at the southern tip of Africa. It is alienated into nine provinces with 2,798 kilometers of coastline.
To the north recline the neighboring countries of Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mamibia; Mozambique and Swaziland are to the east; whereas Lesotho is a commune delimited by South African territory.
South Africa is the 25th largest country in the world by area and the 24th densely inhabited country with over 51 million people.
South Africa is a multi-ethnic nation and has assorted cultures and languages. Eleven official languages are documented in the constitution. Out of these two languages are of European origin: English and Afrikaans, a language that originated mainly from Dutch and is spoken by the mass of white and Colored South Africans.
All racial and language groups have political depiction in the country's legitimate democracy comprising a parliamentary republic; contrasting majority parliamentary republics, the positions of head of state and head of government are amalgamated in a parliament-dependent President.
About 80% of the South African population is of black African descent, divided among a range of cultural groups talking different Bantu languages, nine of which have authorized status.
South Africa is ranked as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank. It has the biggest economy in Africa and the 28th-largest in the planet. By PPP, South Africa has the 5th highest per capita income in Africa. It is painstaking a newly industrialized country. Nevertheless, about a quarter of the population is unemployed and lives on less than US $1.25 a day.
The provinces are in twirl alienated into 52 districts: 8 metropolitan and 44 district municipalities. The district municipalities are additionally subdivided into 226 local municipalities. The urban municipalities, which administer the biggest urban agglomerations, execute the functions of both district and local municipalities.
GEOGRAPHY
South Africa is situated at the southernmost area of Africa, with a long coastline that stretches more than 2,500 km and along two oceans viz. the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. At 1,219,912 sqkm , South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world and is analogous in size to Colombia.
Mafadi in the Drakensberg at 3,450 m is the utmost crest in South Africa. Apart from the Prince Edward Islands, the country sites between latitudes 22° and 35°S, and longitudes 16° and 33°E.
The core of South Africa is a vast, flat, and meagerly inhabited scrubland, the Karoo, which is drier towards the northwest along the Namib Desert. In disparity, the eastern coastline is verdant and well-watered, which produces a climate analogous to the tropics.
To the north of Johannesburg, the altitude drops away from the escarpment of the Highveld, and becomes the lower lying Bushveld, an area of assorted dry forest and an abundance of wildlife. East of the Highveld, past the eastern escarpment, the Lowveld stretches towards the Indian Ocean. It has predominantly high temperatures, and is also the spot of absolute subtropical agriculture.
South Africa also has an ownership, the small sub-Antarctic archipelago of the Prince Edward Islands, comprising of Marion Island and Prince Edward Island.
CLIMATE
South Africa has a usually temperate climate, as it is surrounded by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans on three sides.
Due to this speckled topography and oceanic sway, a great variety of climatic zones exist. The climatic zones vary from the intense desert of the southern Namib in the outermost northwest to the lush subtropical climate in the east down the Mozambique border and the Indian Ocean. Winters in South Africa come about between June and August.
The acute southwest has a climate astonishingly analogous to that of the Mediterranean with wet winters and hot, dry summers, hosting the well-known Fynbos biome of shrubland and thicket. This area is also predominantly known for its wind, which blows sporadically nearly all year. Further on the south coast, rainfall is scattered uniformly across the year, producing a green countryside. This area is widely known as the Garden Route.
The Free State is on the whole flat as it lies centrally on the high plateau. North of the Vaal River, the Highveld becomes healthier watered and does not experience subtropical edges of heat. Johannesburg is in the centre of the Highveld, at 1,740 m and receives an annual rainfall of 760 mm. winters in this region are cold, although snow is infrequent.
The high Drakensberg Mountains, which outline the south-eastern escarpment of the Highveld, tender partial skiing opportunities in winter. The coldest place in South Africa is Sutherland in the western Roggeveld Mountains, where midwinter temperatures can attain as low as ?15 °C. The profound core has the hottest temperature of around 48.8C at Vioolsdrif in January 1993.
ECONOMY
JSE is the prime stock exchange on the African continent.
South Africa has a diversed economy with a soaring rate of poverty and low GDP per capita. Unemployment is high and South Africa is ranked in the top 10 countries in the world for income discrimination, measured by the Gini coefficient.
Unlike most of the world's poor countries, South Africa does not have a flourishing unceremonious economy; according to OECD estimates, only 15 per cent of South African jobs are in the dusk economy, compared with approximately half in Brazil and India and nearly three-quarters in Indonesia.
The OECD attributes this dissimilarity to South Africa's extensive welfare system. World Bank research shows that South Africa has one of the widest gaps between per capita GNP and Human Development Index ranking, with only Botswana screening a bigger gap.
The South African agricultural industry contributes around 10% of official employment, moderately low compared to other parts of Africa, and providing work for casual laborers, contributing around 2.6 per cent of GDP for the nation. Due to the infertility of the land, only 13.5 per cent can be worn for crop production, while only 3 per cent is considered high latent land.
South Africa is a land of around 50 million people of varied genesis, cultures, languages, and religions. The very last census was apprehended in 2011. Although the population of South Africa has amplified in the precedent decade, the nation had an annual population growth rate of ?0.412% in 2012. South Africa is an abode to an anticipated 5 million prohibited immigrants, including some 3 million Zimbabweans.
The 2010 midyear projected figures for the other categories were Black African- 79.4%, White- 9.2%, Colored- 8.8%, and Indian or Asian- 2.6%. White South Africans are offsprings of Dutch, German, French Huguenots, English and other European and Jewish settlers.
The Indian population came to South Africa as indentured laborers to work in the sugar plantations in Natal in the late 19th and early 20th century. They came from diverse parts of the Indian subcontinent, comprising of different religions and spoke different languages.
RELIGION
According to the 2001 national census, Christians accounted for 79.8% of the population. This includes Zion Christian- 11.1%, Pentecostal- 8.2%, Roman Catholic- 7.1%, Methodist- 6.8%, Dutch Reformed- 6.7%, Anglican- 3.8%.
Members of other Christian churches accounted for another 36% of the population. Muslims accounted for 1.5% of the population, Hindus 1.2%, traditional African religion 0.3% and Judaism 0.2%. 15.1% had no religious affiliation, 0.6% was other and 1.4% was indefinite.
LANGUAGES OF SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa has eleven official languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu. In this context it is third only to Bolivia and India in number.
Though all the languages are officially equivalent, few languages are spoken more than others. According to the 2001 National Census, the three most spoken languages are Zulu- 23.8%, Xhosa- 17.6%, and Afrikaans- 13.3%.
In spite of the fact that English is acknowledged as the language of commerce and science, it was spoken by only 8.2% of South Africans in 2001, a trivial turn down from the comparable figure in 1996 i.e. 8.6%.
HEALTH
The impact of AIDS has caused a drop in life expectancy.
The swell of AIDS is a key problem in South Africa, with up to 31% of pregnant women found to be HIV contaminated in 2005 and the infection rate among adults projected at 20%.
The relation between HIV, a virus swell primarily by sexual intercourse, and AIDS was shorn of by prior president Thabo Mbeki and then health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who told that the countless deaths in the country are due to undernourishment, and thus poverty, and not HIV. According to the South African Institute of Race Relations, the verve anticipation in 2009 was 71 years for a white South African and 48 years for a black South African.
In 2007, in response to worldwide pressure, the government took efforts to brawl AIDS. In September 2008 Thabo Mbeki was called back by the ANC and chose to resign and Kgalema Motlanthe was chosen for the short-term. One of Motlanthe's foremost actions was to replace Minister Tshabalala-Msimang with Barbara Hogan who straight away started working to improve the Government's approach to AIDS.
After the 2009 General Elections, President Jacob Zuma appointed Dr Aaron Motsoaledi as the novel minister and committed his government to increasing funding for and widening the scope of AIDS treatment.
AIDS affects primarily those who are sexually active and is far more rampant in the black population than it is among racial minorities. Majority of deaths are experienced by economically dynamic individuals, ensuing in many families losing their primary bread earners. This has resulted in many 'AIDS orphans' who in numerous cases depend on the state for care and financial support.
It is projected that there are 1,200,000 orphans in South Africa. Many aged people also mislay the support from lost younger members of their family. According to the 2011 UNAIDS Report, South Africa has an anticipated 5.6 million people living with HIV - more than any other country in the world.
EDUCATION
South Africa has a 3 layer system of education initiating with principal school, then high school and tertiary education in the form of universities and universities of technology. Learners have twelve years of official schooling, from grade 1 to 12. Grade R is a pre-primary underpinning year. Primary schools last for the initial seven years of schooling. High School education spans for five years. The Senior Certificate examination takes place at the conclusion of grade 12 and is obligatory for tertiary studies at a South African university.
Public universities in South Africa are divided into three types: traditional universities, which tender theoretically oriented university degrees; universities of technology, which offer professional diplomas and degrees; and comprehensive universities that tender both types of qualification.
There are 23 public universities in South Africa: 11 traditional universities, 6 universities of technology and 6 comprehensive universities. Public institutions are typically English medium, although instruction may take place in Afrikaans as well. There are numerous educational institutions in South Africa – few are local campuses of foreign universities, few conduct classes for students who write their exams at the distance-education University of South Africa and few offer unaccredited or non-accredited diplomas.
Both public and private universities and colleges register with the Department of Higher Education and Training and are ascribed by the Council on Higher Education (CHE). Rankings of universities and business schools in South Africa are mostly based on international university rankings, as they have not yet been published any exclusively South African rankings.
Under apartheid, schools for blacks were subject to prejudice through scarce funding and a separate syllabus called Bantu Education which was only designed to give them sufficient skills to work as laborers.
In 2004 South Africa initiated reforming its higher education system by merging small universities into superior institutions, and renaming all higher education institutions "university" in order to equalize these imbalances.
Public expenditure on education was at 5.4% of the 2002–05 GDP.
CHAPTER - 2 PESTEL ANALYSIS POLITICAL ANALYSIS:
The Republic of South Africa held its 1st universal suffrage elections in April 1994. The African National Congress (ANC), fight against white minority rule and the apartheid system of state-forced tribal separation and won control of the National Assembly.
Nelson Mandela was elected as President of the Assembly and became ANC leader. He released from Prison in 1900 after serving 27 years.
South Africa’s second universal suffrage elections were held in June 1999, and again the ANC retained control of the National Assembly. Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, was chosen by the Assembly to succeed Mandela.
South Africa’s politics persist to be dominated by the ANC, which has enjoyed support among many black South Africans because of its role was to fight against white minority rule. And support apartheid system.
Further parties represented in parliament include:
The New National Party (NNP)
The Independent Democrats (ID)
The United Democratic Movement (UDM)
The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP).
The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) is also a legislative body in SA with small amount of power. Its members are chosen by the governments of the nine provinces.
Democratic Alliances:
Democratic Alliances is the 2nd largest party in the National Assembly of South Africa.
DA was created in 2000 by a merger of the Democratic Party (DP) and the New National Party (NNP) to remove the dominant power of ANC in the political system.
The DP has largely white in its membership but it advocated a classical liberal stage and became beneficiary to the Progressive Party. They strongly opposed apartheid and campaigned on human rights issues.
African National Congress:
The ANC has long worked in an closely connecting tripartite alliance to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). Leaders of COSATU and the SACP assemble on the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC, and plays important role as the party’s principal decision-making body.
Zuma Administration:
Zuma was elected as South Africa’s newest President on May 9, 2009. Long-serving Finance Minister Trevor Manuel was replaced by the well respected former head of South Africa’s Revenue Service, Pravin Gordhan. Manuel was heading a new national planning commission to formulate government strategy.
Parliament is concern that Zuma would modify the country’s economic policy to different positive level. Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State welcomed the Zuma government’s swearword to continue “a strong economic program.”
Congress of People:
Numerous prestigious ANC members united to previous Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota to begin a new, moderate political party, the Congress of the People (COPE) in December 2008.
The new party did well in its first electoral contest and won one-third of the 27 seats in Western Cape municipal by-elections in December 2008. COPE selected preacher Mvume Dandala as its presidential member.
U.S. Relations:
The South African government places a strong emphasis on budget transparency which is ranking second after the United Kingdom in public spending transparency in the Open Budget Index.
The United States provides considerable support to South Africa’s fight against HIV/AIDS through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) which having contributed more than $2 billion since the program’s inception in FY2004. In FY2010, the PEPFAR program provided Anti-Ritro Viral therapy to an estimated 917,700 patient’s and transmission prevention treatment to over 682,400 pregnant HIV-infected women. Also counselling and testing for over 5 million, and palliative and tuberculosis care for 2,160,300 South Africans. PEPFAR’s South Africa program also funds public education efforts to promote self-discipline, faithfulness, and healthy behaviour to reduce the risk of transmission among high-risk groups.
In December 2010, the United States and South Africa signed a five-year Partnership Framework to improve synchronization on PEPFAR.
The Obama management has emphasized South Africa’s important leadership role, both regionally and globally. The United States supports South Africa’s efforts to deliver foreign assistance to other African countries through a $1.3 million Trilateral Assistance Program.
SOUTH AFRICA: MOVING BEYOND APARTHEID
South Africa is among one of the few countries which has largely experienced a relatively smooth transition to democracy. The apartheid government which was dominated by the National Party had voluntarily agreed to democratic elections in which party had little possibility of success.
The election outcome allowed the ANC (African National Congress) majority to form the GNU (Government of National Unity) in cooperation with the National Party and Inkatha. The GNU will rule the country for next five years until new constitutional provision for South Africa are finalized for the nation. Scholars and policymakers distinguish South Africa as a model for democratic transition in ethnically divided societies.
CURRENT POLITICAL SYSTEM:
The Union Buildings in Pretoria, The Houses of Parliament in Cape Town
seat of the executive seat of the legislatureC:\Users\FRENY CHRISTIAN\Desktop\FMCGr\South Africa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia_files\220px-Houses_of_Parliament_(Cape_Town).jpgPhoto of the Union Buildings
South Africa is a parliamentary republic, although not like most such republics the President is both head of state and head of government, and depends for his tenancy on the confidence of Parliament.
The legislature, executive and judiciary committee are having the power of the constitution and the superior court’s members have the power to dismiss and work on executive actions and acts of Parliament if they are not authorized in nature.
South Africa has three capital cities:
Cape Town: The seat of Parliament which is the legislative capital;
Pretoria: The seat of the President and Cabinet which is the administrative capital;
Bloemfontein: This is judicial capital of South Africa.
After the end of apartheid policies in 1994, South African politics have been dominated by the ANC which continuously winning with almost 60–70 per cent of the vote of total. The Democratic Alliance is main challenger to the rule of ANC as opposition party.
The National Party ruled from 1948 to 1994 then renamed party in 1997 to the New National Party and then finally amalgamated with the ANC in 2005.
Other political parties who represented in Parliament are the Congress of the People which split from the ANC party and won 7.4 % of the vote in the year 2009 and the Inkatha Freedom Party which mainly represents Zulu voters they won 4.6 % of the vote in the 2009 election. These both parties are also major parties in SA.
Since 2004, the country had many thousands of popular opposites some were aggressive. It was also known as the "Most protest rich country in the world" at that time. Many of these kind of protests have been organized from the growing shanty towns that surround South African cities.
In 2008, South Africa placed 5th out of 48 sub-Saharan African countries on the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. South Africa also scored well in the categories of various Rule of Law, Corruption, Transparency and Participation and Human Rights, but was disappointment by relatively poor performance in Safety & Security of nation. The Ibrahim Index which is a complete measure of African governance is based on a number of different variables which reflect the success with which governments bring necessary political supplies to citizens of country. In November 2006, South Africa became the first African country to legalize gay marriage.
FOREIGN RELATIONS:
As the Union of South Africa SA is one of the founding members of the United Nations. The country is one of the founding members of the African Union (AU) and has the largest economy of all the members.
It is also a founding member of the AU's New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
South Africa has played a key role as an intermediary in African conflicts over the last 10 years like in Burundi, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe.
After apartheid ended South Africa focused to the Commonwealth of Nations. The country is a member of the Group of 77 and leads the organization in 2006.
South Africa is also a member of the Southern African Development Community, South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone, Antarctic Treaty System, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Southern African Customs Union, World Trade Organization, G20 and G8+5.
Jacob Zuma, South African President and Chinese President HuJintao build bilateral bond between the two countries on 24 August 2010 by signing the Beijing Agreement which announced South Africa's earlier "strategic partnership" with China to the higher level of "comprehensive strategic partnership" in both economic and political affairs of country and including the strengthening of interactions between their respective ruling parties and legislatures and government.
South Africa officially joined the Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRICS) grouping of countries which was identified by President Zuma as the country's largest trading partners in April 2011 and also became the largest trading partners with Africa as a whole. Zuma asserted that BRICS member countries would also work with each other through the UN and the Group of Twenty (G20) and the IBSA forum (India, Brazil South Africa).
POLITICAL STRUCTURE:
The Republic of SA is a unitary parliamentary republic.
STABILITY OF GOVERNMENT:
As an emerging nation, SA has not remained completely unaltered by the turmoil in other emerging economies worldwide, especially in Asia, and lately also in Russia. Which may negatively affected investor confidence in these countries.
ROLE OF GOVERNMENT:
SA economists in the 1980’s decided the national nation as a free enterprise system in which the market, not the government, set most earnings and prices.
SPECIAL TAXES
SA has a residence based system which basically means residents are subject to certain exclusions taxed on their worldwide income irrespective of where their income was earned. Non residents are also taxed on their income from South African source.
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT:
Political Environment refers political and Government Environment. It has close relationship with the economic system, economic policy and legal environments of country.
The Democratic government countries laws / acts are passed in the parliaments and then they are regulating rules and regulation of business according to the act.
Political stability, political responsibility and political ideology and level of political morality, the law and order situation and practice of the ruling party and major determination and efficiency of the government agencies
Political agencies’ nature is mainly influence to economic and industrial act which is present in the country.
Government’s various policies like fiscal, monetary, industrial, labor and export import policies \ influences to specific legal acts and structure towards the business organization Political function and degree of the effectiveness mainly influenced to generate and implement policy in the legislature.
The political environment is also based on the uncertainty that’s why demographic countries consist of number of political parties.
Political parties are not got clear majority to form government. In this situation, industry and commerce collapsed their business activities due to unstable government of the country. The political parties are unable to formulate stable government if affect and vary the government policies. So business organization and public needed to the stable government.
ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT:
Government
Government policies
POLITICAL SYSTEM AND BUSINESS:
In spite of having eye-catching the economic, geographical, social prospects of a particular country or region but doing business in that country might prove to be financially disastrous if the host government inflict heavy financial penalties on a company or if unexpected events in the political arena lead to the loss of income-generating assets.
The political environment in which the firm operates or planning to operate will have a significant impact on a company's international marketing activities. The greater the level of involvement in a foreign markets the greater the need to monitor the political climate of the countries business is generated.
Any kind of changes in government usually result in changes in policy and attitudes towards foreign business.
When country came to know that foreign company operates in Host Company then government will become more conscious. In this case the government of the country can either encourage foreign activities by offering attractive opportunities for investment and trade or discourage its activities by imposing restrictions such as import quotas, tariffs etc. An exporter that is continuously attentive of shifts in government approach will be able to adapt export marketing strategies accordingly.
In the country’s Economy almost all government play vital role to grow it. In most of the countries government ownership of economic activities is widespread in the earlier centrally planned economies as well as in many developing countries which lack a sufficiently well developed private sector to support a free market system.
Frequent change in government is one of the surest measurement values of political instability. Although a change in government need not be run by violence but usually appear a change in policy towards business and particularly global business. This kind of growth might impact negatively on a firm’s long-term global marketing programme with foreign countries.
A government's attitudes and policies towards foreign business gives idea about how best to endorse national interest in the field of the country's economic and political resources as well as objectives. Foreign products and investments become important part in the growth and development of countries economic condition by receiving taxes, quotas etc.
South Africa's global relations have become normal and today other countries all over the world see South Africa as well established political power and stability.
The political environment is connected to the international business environment but there is always a risk present in that which is known as Political Risk.
POLITICAL RISK:
The effect of political change and differences on the foreign firm’s operations, production, environment and decision making process is known as political Risk.
Political risk is measured in a different way for different companies they might or might not been affected by political change in respected country.
Political risk is major when politically motivated environmental changes affect all foreign investment. It is minor when the environmental changes are proposed to affect only selected fields of business activity or foreign firms with specific characteristics.
When any business is conducted in developing countries major risk to the business are civil turmoil, war and take away rules from public and when business is conducted in industrialized countries labor disruptions and price controls are generally become greatest threats to a company's profitability and existence in the country and also affect market shares.
POLITICAL FACTORS AFFECTING BUSINESS:
Government Stability:
South Africa has suffered political instability during the past 25 – 10 years but it is now stable. As an emerging economy, South Africa has not remained completely unaffected by the confusion in other emerging economies international especially in Asia and then also in Russia. This negatively affected investor confidence in these countries.
SA has stable politics which may attract the foreign business but in SA as we know Democratic Alliance is greater opposition to ANC which is continuously affecting the political growth of SA
Taxation Policy:
Taxation in South Africa mainly involves payments to a minimum of two different levels of government: Central government all the way through the South African Revenue Service (SARS) or to local government.
Revenue to Central government come primarily from income tax and value added tax (VAT), corporation tax and fuel duty by business and people.
Revenues to Local government come primarily from various grants from central government funds and municipal rates which are applicable locally.
South Africa has income tax system in which people should have to pay according to their wealth. Wealthy should give much more than the person which is poor. This basically means that the more a person earns the higher percentage tax they pay to nation.
Direct Taxation:
Normal tax
Secondary tax on companies:
It is a policy tax forced by government with the plan of encouraging companies to keep hold of profits instead of giving out dividends
Withholding tax
Donations tax
Indirect Taxation:
Value Added Tax
Fuel levy
FOREIGN TRADE DIMENSIONS:
Besides large-scale foreign investment in South Africa, foreign investors also seek other opportunities to stay in South Africa due to presence of natural resources availability.
A high quality is placed on its steadiness by the global community due to South Africa's strategic and geopolitical importance in a regional and global context. Due to South Africa’s this kind of leading and stabilizing role in regional context giving positive impact to international community to grow more interest to stabilize in South Africa.
Africa has represented international investors with unprecedented opportunities for business with its relatively large and previously untapped markets. Originally political transitions were almost volatile in nature. It therefore comes as no surprise that the period since the April 1994 elections saw amid the overall sense of achievement and increasing goodwill moments of political uncertainty and pressure. However the political stability increased as constitutional democracy became more entrenched.
Politics is not everything in country. In top-level appointments of talented politicians in the private sector highlighted that the career paths of capable leaders are not confined to politics, the bureaucracy or the military. This sets South Africa apart from many other developing countries, enhancing political stability in the sense that politics is not a zero-sum contest.
A strong will of reconciliation: Nelson Mandela believed in settlement between nations which led to transformation in nation. This strong will is however evident throughout political and everyday life. Examples comprise the normality of parliamentary politics and national and community processes of co-operation and the fascinating process of soul-searching and resolution through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
SOCIAL WELFARE POLICIES:
The South African government seen that political and economic stability in South Africa is directly connected to political and economic stability in the country. No country can survive in a sea of poverty by being an island of prosperity.
There is greater progresss towards South Africa’s political and economical integration into Southern African region within radius of Southern African Development Community (SADC). Economic policy changes the maximum political stability and joint participation in global trade and tourism are now common things in upcoming agendas of South Africa with neighbor countries.
South Africa plays a leading role in SADC which has become the key integrative mechanism in the region.
GROWTH, EMPLOYMENT AND REDISTRIBUTION STRATEGY (GEAR)
GROWTH, EMPLOYMENT AND REDISTRIBUTION STRATEGY (GEAR) is a total strategy aiming at a competitive, fast growing and job-creating economy and redistribution of resources and creating opportunities for the poor people with the provision of available health, education and housing facilities. The policy of GEAR consist of reformation of budget and reduction of shortage along with business liberalization and reformation of tariff and flexible labour market strategies and renewed infrastructure investment and tax incentives to attract new and existing investment and a commitment to coordinate policies.
The main players in the economic field have already shown that they have both the right attitude and the will to do so and these two factors are vital to the successful implementation of GEAR. Some examples of GEAR’s applications:
The private sector fully supports almost all the principles of GEAR for example the emphasis on budgetary change and fiscal shortage reduction and consistent monetary policy and trade liberalization and investment-friendly strategies of nation.
Trade unions remained committed to a social compression between government, labor and employer organization and organization.
New tax incentives were introduced to support fixed investment and restructuring in manufacturing in order to increase competitiveness among players, to facilitate higher labor incorporation and encourage small and medium-sized manufacturing companies of nation.
As far as trade liberalization is concerned, the average import in the manufacturing industry has been reduced from 19 percent in 1994 to 10 percent in 1996. The aim is towards 8 percent in the year 2000.
ECONOMICAL ANALYSIS
Mortality levels especially in child or less than five years of age reflect:
The state of public health and hygiene,
The sanitation, cultural and more about feeding and clothing,
The social and economic development and
The people’s outlook towards the dignity and value of human life itself.
The Child Mortality Level is the statistical index that expresses the idea of whether environmental hazards, including communicable diseases, typhoid, cholera, jaundice, etc. are controlled effectively or not in the developing or less developed countries. The child mortality level can be used for strategic and national planning as well as a measure of social indicators like:
The quality of health care,
Food,
Ffamily planning and
Usage.
The level provides proof of policies and practices that guide to the improvement of health. Factors such as sanitation and disaster in and around the home are also shown in the child mortality rate.
Child mortality poses problem to both society and the family. High levels of child mortality are a signal that basic health facilities to fight poor sanitation, environmental degradation and living condition are grossly inadequate. Adding to this, basic facilities like sanitation, toilet, and sewerage are not provided to those who are in a poor state.
Where high level of child mortality is dominant, there is equal chance of infection of communicable and parasitic diseases. This is an indication of poor hygienic conditions and frequent occurrence of epidemic diseases.
In most of the rural people of African Countries, high child mortality sometimes results in a collapse of marriages because of many reasons in which main reason is “misfortune”. When a family/couple loss more than one infant (normally the first born), people tend to say that one of the family hasn’t deal with skill which results in the death of the infant(s). If a person having more than one wife, if one of the women should suffer this fate, all sorts of accusations are level against her and her parents will also become rival of her. So her marriage life will be unhappy and not going well. Couple was forced to lose “Christian beliefs and values” because of frequent occurrence of child mortality and due to this, this family try to find out the way to come out from this situation. At the same time they no longer believe in the all knowing God and look out for other gods for solutions and/or for fortune. In most African societies, regular infant and child deaths, and/or sterility are seen as bad sign.
Parents are viewed it as their unproven wrong deeds. In all, child mortality brings sorrow, pain, hate and lack of respect to the family. It brings pain to the whole society associated with it at large.
The Bivariate analysis shows that, on the basis of statistical test out of 1fourteen, ten are the independent variables that influences less than five years of age of child’s death.
As we can see from below, are:
The education of the mother,
The occupation of the mother,
The number of children born to the mother,
Loss of the former child by the mother,
The marital status of the mother,
There is a presence of rival to the mother,
Household income of Parents that is father/mother,
The education of the father,
The duration of breastfeeding, and
The vaccination of children against certain communicable and environmental diseases.
While the different variables like social and economic, demographic and health in the model prove to be important factors affecting under five years of age of child’s death, it is surprising to note that none of the factors like the type of house, water in house, and toilet in the house included, showed to be an important determinant of <5 years of age of child’s death.
Even though South African has had a black government for more than 15 years, most of the black people don’t have their own homes. They live in shack in shanty and other places where they fight with social and economic problems, including malnutrition and communicable and other environmental diseases. In some cases, some children lack necessary parental care and good food. While some of the unemployed parents do not have financial means which is required for care of their children. Whereas some children even keep in the street to fend for them. This horrible scene needs proper inquiry, strategies and actions to make it correct and improve the quality of the children’s lives in rural areas.
The results in this study show that the different factors those are affecting the <5 years of age of child’s death are:
Education of the mother,
marital status of the mother,
The number of children the mother has, duration of breastfeeding, a loss of an older child and
The occupation of the mother.
It has shown that occupation of a mother is an important determinant of mortality of her children at the younger age that is basically from 0-5 years.
It explains that when a mother works outside the home, she is restricted from taking maximum care of the child and that is directly affects the survival chances of the child directly. This study has also supported the assertion that the longer the duration of breastfeeding (min of 6 months) (from the HIV Negative women) the lower the risk of child mortality & the risk can be reduced by over 33 percent.
Female formal education is limited up to standard 10 makes more important to them. A study has revealed that women’s education after nine-successful years of schooling is a necessary and essential factor to promote a decline in child mortality. Especially female education is an important determinant of employment in Limpopo province in South Africa because that is basic requirement for women to do the job and provides “bread” to her family.
Married woman used to remain obedient to her husband in most of the African tradition. In case of sex and proliferation women who have got degrees from higher universities of Africa still find themselves imprisoned by their husbands or traditions. Most of the women desire to have small family but actual family size is high.
PRIVATE SECTOR
The private business regulatory climate is regarded as one of the most favorable in Africa. The World Bank’s Doing Business report 2012 & has ranked South Africa 35th. South Africa has eliminated requirement to submit proposed company’s name for regulatory approval by its new Company Law which was incorporated in 2011 and due to this procedures can simplified. Though for the growth of small and very small enterprises or microenterprises, there are high barriers. The major obstacles for the growth of microenterprises are like access to:
Finance,
Crime and
Problems of access to land and transport.
For doing formal business, the 3 most dominant problem factors remain:
Ineffective government bureaucracy;
An inadequately educated workforce; and
Some perceive to be restrictive labor regulations.
Due to presence of more number of parastaltas and monopolistic market created by them, the Product Market remains troublesome for microenterprises.
According to the Doing Business report 2012, trading in different countries is also among one of the most difficult in the region in which South Africa ranking 144th out of 183 countries which shows less exports and imports. Though the country performs well with regard to paying taxes that involves nine payments and two hundred hours that is well below the regional average of twenty eight payments and two hundred and ten hours. Besides for the permit of construction there is involvement of thirteen procedures and hundred twenty seven days that is also well below the regional average of seventeen procedures and two hundred eighty eight days.
South Africa’s labor laws are very rigid in case of hiring and firing of the workers which is very important for the country.
According to the Global Competitiveness Report 2011-12, in South Africa, a minimum wage for a 19-year-old worker and the ratio of minimum wage to value added is almost three times the average for other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries. Private ownership of land is legally guaranteed. However, the current buyer-willing-seller model of land redistribution has been largely ineffective in ensuring the transfer of a large proportion of land to previously disadvantaged groups.
FINANCIAL SECTOR
The financial sector in South Africa is well developed and comprises of:
17 banks,
2 mutual banks, and
a number of foreign bank branches and offices,
non-banking financial institutions (including state-owned development finance institutions (DFIs),
Smaller financial intermediaries and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the 18th largest in the world in 2011.
The banking sector is stable and strong enough and has survived the financial crisis relatively very safe as compared to other developing countries, but it currently faces low credit demand and increased costs. Domestic banks are already capitalized above the new Basel III levels and are presently operating with an average capital adequacy ratio of 15%, or 12% for Tier 1 capital, which includes issued ordinary share capital and retained earnings which are well above the minimum prudential capital adequacy requirement of 10%.
But they are still not able to find the way to meet the new global liquidity standard because of slow economic recovery. The ratio of non-performing loans reached 5.5% of gross loans at the end of November 2011 but is expected to stabilize at this level. Following the 650 basis points cut in the policy rate between 2008 and 2010, the Prime Lending Rate (PLR) declined to 9% in 2011 while the average savings rate by 5 major banks on one-year deposits was 5.34%, leading to an interest rate of 4.66% at the end of 2011.
The bank loans-to-deposits ratio improved to 93% in June 2011 from 100% in March 2008, providing a remarkable buffer against liquidity pressures. Though there is high level of about 37% development of financial sector in South Africa, 33 million people are still not able to find their ways to access the banking services in 2010. The majority of informal businesses have limited access to formal financing.
The government has created alternative channels of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) financing like:
Including the provision of credit guarantees to commercial banks which are willing to lend to small businesses, and
Direct lending by specialized SME financing entities.
DFI which is the country’s largest funding agency, single entity, created by merging of 3 state-owned development funding agencies operating in the micro-, small- and medium sized enterprise (MSME), the Industrial Development Corporation in April 2012.
PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGEMENT, INSTITUTIONS & REFORM
The legal system of South Africa provides enough protection to property rights, and contract rights are sufficiently respected and enforced. There is uniformity seen in the application of Laws and Regulations affecting businesses and individuals.
All types of foreign and domestic investors are allowed to invest in all sectors of the economy without any discrimination. There is still slow transfer of land ownership to the previously disadvantageous people so new legislation is imposed in the year 2011 to replace the current seller-willing-buyer model and The legislation is expected to be enacted in 2012.
To align existing B-BBEE that is Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment with other related legislation, the Department of Trade and Industry published the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Amendment Bill in December 2011 and provide for the establishment of the B-BBEE Commission tasked with monitoring and evaluating black economic empowerment interventions in the country. This Bill also proposes big and hard as well as stronger penalty against businesses involved in “fronting” i.e. falsely claiming black people as having a leadership position in a company and other abuses of the Act.
Local governments continue to face challenges in delivering basic services primarily because of:
A lack of skills,
Limited institutional and
Revenue management capacities.
In December 2011, the government placed 5 departments in LIMPOPO and some others in 2 other provinces under central government administration as a result of weaknesses in financial management. To get recruitment in central government, it is mainly done on merit basis. However, there is dilemma faced by public services of righting the racial imbalances created under apartheid while avoiding the weakening of government capacity and undermining its trust and credibility.
So many numbers of initiatives and structure created by government to fight corruption and has implemented a comprehensive conflict of interest policy. However, the corruption in the country is increased like anything, as South Africa ranks 64th out of 183 countries surveyed in Transparency International’s 2011 Corruption Perception Report which is a record low from 54th in 2010.
POLITICAL CONTEXT
The 57.7% turnout at the May 2011 municipal elections was the highest since the first such elections in 2000. The ANC continues to dominate, with just under 62% of the vote, but support declined in some provinces. There is always used to be a critical leadership challenge for the government both at local and central level to deliver essential social services such as water and sanitation. Delivery of service was a dominant in the political fortunes of the smaller parties during the municipal elections.
In December 2011, the ANC endorsed the Protection of Information Bill (PIB) in the lower house of Parliament despite strong opposition from civil society organizations, the media and trade unions, who viewed the bill as a threat to democracy.
Julius Malema who was vocal and controversial Youth League President, suspended for 5 years from the party that is the ANC in November 2011 whose acts deemed to be harmful for the party as well as for the country’s growth. In March 2012, the suspension was prominent to a full dismissal from the party following an appeal by Mr. Malema. Fears that his dismissal would widen divisions in the party did not materialize. Major policy differences, however, remain within the party and among its coalition partners of organized labor, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP).
MACROECONOMIC POLICY
FISCAL POLICY
Two years before that is 2009 recession, South Africa adopted a counter-cyclical fiscal policy stance that favors expanded public spending during economic slowdowns and vice versa. So Fiscal policy thus became expansionary from 2009 onwards and though there is continued weakness in the global economy and also the weakness in the domestic recovery, it was remained so along.
The fiscal policy of South Africa is followed by three principles:
Long-term public debt sustainability,
counter-cyclicality, and
Intergenerational equity.
For investor as investment in network infrastructure that is energy, transport, and information, communications and technology (ICT) which remains central to government’s expansion plans, during the first half of 2011 spending on public sector spending has reached to 7.5% of country’s GDP and that is expected to rise further to 7.8% of GDP during the next two years.
The state-owned enterprises particularly for electricity there is ESKOM and for transport there is TRANSNET accounts the size of infrastructure investment. The wage bill is 12% GDP or 42% of Government revenue which is from 31% in 2008 which is due to improvements in public service pay and increases in employment raised that makes it the fastest growing component of current expenditure. The budget deficit declined significantly from 6.3% of GDP during fiscal year 2009-10 to 4.2% during 2010-11 and as a result of that there is control in spending in the areas where there is non-interest and a modest improvement in tax revenue, before widening slightly to 4.8% of GDP in fiscal year 2011-12, as there is increase of national government spending due to higher current payments along with transfer and subsidies that has exceeded the moderate growth in revenue collection. There is expectation that the deficit to fall slightly to 4.4% in 2012-13 and to 4.2% in 2013-14 and this is mainly because of moderation in primary spending growth.
The primary deficit declined substantially from 4.0% in 2009-10 to 1.8% in 2010-11. Total government revenue for 2012-13 is estimated at ZAF 905 billion, or 27.4% of GDP, while total government expenditure is put at ZAF 1.1 trillion, or 32% of GDP, for the same year. The fiscal stance is expected to remain moderately expansionary for 2012 and 2013.MONETARY POLICY
The average annual consumer price inflation remained within the target range of 3% to 6% in 2011, at 5% for the current year. Though the upper limit of inflation was broken and in November and December 2011 it has passed to the 6.1%. The reason behind increase of inflation rate is:
Increases in the prices of food,
Non-alcoholic beverages and
Transport.
Core inflation remained at around 3.9%. Both regulated and non-regulated prices administered by policy-makers continued to remain well above the policy range for nearly two years and were at 16.1% and 8.2% year-on-year, respectively, in November 2011. For the whole year of 2012, inflation is expected to remain outside the upper end of the target range and it will return to within the target range in 2013. Inflation is expected to average 6.2% in 2012 and 5.4% in 2013. For the year 2011 additional stimulus to the economy was provided by the government because of a 150 basis points cut in the repo rate in 2010 that brought the policy rate to 5.5% which was at its lowest level in 30 years. In real terms, the repo rate remained at about 1.2% in 2010 before shrinking to 0.5% in 2011.
There is a Free Floating Exchange rate system in South Africa. A sudden reversal in capital flows since the second quarter of 2011, coupled with heightened investor risk aversion towards emerging markets that led to a gradual depreciation of the rand at beginning in the third quarter of 2011, posing a further upside risk to inflation. Though there is historically lowest interest rate in the country the demand for the credit by the private sector remains suppressed, increasing by 6% year-on-year in November 2011, compared to 5% in January 2011, while growth in broad money supply (M3) declined from 8.2% in January 2011 to 7.26% in October 2011.
In Private sector, investment in 2011 grew at an estimated 5.0% that is down from 12.0% in 2010. Given the gloomy outlook for growth and other important macroeconomic indicators like:
Employment,
Investment and
exports those remaining well below their pre-crisis levels, and
Early monetary policy tightening could harm the recovery.
Therefore continuation of the current accommodative monetary policy for the year 2012 and 2013 is very crucial for the recovery of private investment and consumption and which are critical for sustained growth and job creation. The statement given by the Monetary Policy Committee in January 2011 is that it is unlikely to cut the repo rate in 2012 given the Monetary Policy Committee’s statement in January 2012 unless and until global conditions deteriorate substantially and start visibly curtailing growth.
ECONOMIC COOPERATION, REGIONAL INTEGRATION & TRADE
There is a shift of global power towards developing countries. The trade policy of South Africa would be underpinned by strengthening functional integration in the area, on the continent and also with the emerging economies of the countries that is specifically the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), which the country joined in 2011. South Africa’s trade profile has evolved largely. South Africa has exported its goods at the end of 2010 that is 36% to Asia, 27% to the EU, and 18% to sub-Saharan Africa and excluding to the countries of Europe and America, exports of manufactured goods to Asia and African countries were increased markedly. A seventeen percentage trade-weighted depreciation of the rand in 2011 contributed to improved external competitiveness, raising the value of merchandise exports by 3.3% in the third quarter of 2011. South Africa’s imports increased by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter of 2011 and that is due increase of domestic demand for consumer and capital goods.
There is an estimation of declining trade balance from around 1.0% in 2010 to 0.8% of GDP in 2011. In future, it is estimated that South Africa’s import intensity is likely to continue to increase as domestic expenditure improves and specially if there is a rise in fixed investment into 2013 and it will increase demand on trade balance for the next two years. Besides this, increased outflows in service, income and current transfers, is likely to lead to the current account deficit of over 3.9% in 2012 and 4.3% in 2013. In 2011, FDI in mining and retail trade has come to USD 4.5 billion from that of USD 1.2 billion from 2010. FDI in South Africa had declined by 70% in 2010 as investors shifted to other resource-rich countries and/or countries with larger domestic markets in Africa.
SOCIAL ANALYSIS
South Africa is one of the most diverse countries among the world. Many urban areas in South Africa have a different ethnic group that reflects the whole population. The population of South Africa includes the original black peoples and European, Chinese, Indian and many more from rest of the world have migrated to South Africa. The South African culture and etiquettes is much complicated and not easy describe due to its diversity.
THE FAMILY IN SOUTH AFRICA:
The South African family consists of the small nuclear families and extended families. The coloured and more conservative/conventional Afrikaans cultures gives more importance to extended families than the small and nuclear families, while the white English-speaking community gives more importance to the nuclear family.
THE RURAL/URBAN DICHOTOMY:
In South Africa a huge differences is seen between the rural and urban areas. More than half of the white people living in rural areas are Afrikaner farmers who are descended from the Calvinists descended. They view world as narrow, and they give value to human civilisation above materialism.
Many rural black people of South Africa are still attached and follow their old traditions; on the other hand the urban black people are more and more influenced by the urban environment and international and modern life style that surrounds them.
ETIQUETTE IN SOUTH AFRICA:
Several greeting styles are prevailing in South Africa, it depends on the type of person you are meeting and also on the culture and tradition the person follows. While meeting or gathering with foreigners, most of the South Africans shake hands and maintaining their eye contact with a smile on their face.
There are two main occasions in the South Africa when the tradition of gift giving takes place. Birthdays and Christmas are the two main occasions for giving present to someone. The South African people celebrate their 21st and 40th birthdays by giving huge party and a lavish gift for the near ones.
South Africans do not believe in long relationships or creating a personal relation in conducting a business. These people are more of a transactional nature.
Major differences are seen in communication style prevailing in South Africa; it purely depends on the cultural heritage on an individual. In most part of South Africa the people keep harmonious working relationships among each other and avoid conflicts. These people often use the metaphors and sporty language to demonstrate a point. Most of the South Africans, although ethnic, prefer to meet face-to-face above common communication means such as telephone email, letter, etc.
It is very important to develop mutual trust and understanding before any business negotiation.
DEMOGRAPHY:
The population numbers approximately more than 50 million, which comprises of formally recognized Bantu-speaking groups; the white Afrikaners – the Dutch descendants, the German people speaking Afrikaans, the French, and a variety of Dutch; the English speaking descendants of British; a multiracial that speaks Afrikaans and/or English; and the Indian immigrant who primarily speaks Tamil and Urdu.
Seventy percent of the population in South Africa are the black Africans, whereas the white people make up eleven percent of the total population, Coloureds are eight percent, more than two percent are Indians, and other minorities come under less than two percent of the population.
HISTORY AND ETHNIC RELATIONS:
The South Africa has rich abundant of early human fossils which are found in Sterkfontein and other places. The earliest modern citizens were the San known as Bushman – hunter gatherers and the Khoi people called the Hottentot, who herded domestic animals. The San are said to have their presence in South Africa since thousands of years and the rock art, the ancient cave paintings give the evidence of their presence in South Africa.
After the annihilating the San and Khoj, the Bantu speaking people and the European colonist had many conflict against each other which continued till democratic transformation of 1994. The black African rulers founded a large, powerful kingdoms and nations at the time of colonial expansion possible through incorporating neighbouring leaders. The result of this incorporation was the emerging of the nations like Zulu, Xhosa, Pedi, Venda, Swazi, Sotho, Tswana, and Tsonga, along with the white Afrikaners.
History says that Afrikaners considers themselves as the true South Africans, and while giving the citizenship to all the inhabitants of European descent, denied that status to people of coloured until the democratic transition of 1994. These European decent retain a connection to Europe and also maintain their identity of being the South Africans.
There is a strong sense of cultural separateness and individuality which coincides with the practical forms of cooperation and common identification of population. The diversity and division within cultural groups and the balance of problems between those groups throughout the 20th century prevented civil conflict among the ethnic groups in the country. Although many problems prevailed in the country between inter groups over political power resources, and entitlements. These conflicts made Zulu opposing Zulu, Zulu opposing Xhosa and African opposing Afrikaner.
URBANISM, ARCHITECTURE, AND THE USE OF SPACE:
The domestic architecture of Bantu and Khoi population is said to be very simple but was considered as strong and serviceable, in harmony with a migrant horticultural and rural economy.
The pre-colonial multi dwelling homesteads still exists in some rural areas of South Africa, the tendency behind this was to group genetic clusters. The term "village" applies to the close multi dwelling family settlements, most precisely to the Sotho and Tswana peoples - ruled by a local chief, than to the broadly spread family residents of the Xhosa, Swazi, and Zulu. Both the Nguni and the Sotho-Tswana speaking communities were canter spatially and generally around the residence and cattle area of the sub chief, which served as a court and assembly for the exercise of authority in local affairs.
The South Africa's architecture - Post Office Clock Tower in Durban reflects the influence of the British and Dutch colonist black people, establishing the architectural history of ethnic separation.
In the majority of the land declared as white areas, the whites lived in town centres and near suburbs, whereas the black workers were forced to live in more distant townships to serve the white people. The present government does not have the right amount of wealth and resources to change this pattern, but the economic liberty and prospect may allow the citizens to form a new integrated built surroundings.
FOOD:
The everyday life food of the South Africans consists of usually simple fare of starches and meats distinctive characteristic of farming and frontier society. The Early Afrikaner pioneered farmers depend or remain entirely on meat whenever the conditions for do business in cereals were not positive.
ECONOMY:
South Africa in nineteenth century primarily was involved in agricultural economy and the land was much productive and the people of South Africa were much relying upon the livestock farming. The economic enterprises mainly were handled by both the white and black African colonists, and because of this conflict were frequent between the blacks and whites on the ownership of feeding land and livestock.
After the largest diamond deposits were discovered in South Africa, the capital gathered from those fields helped the country to finance the utilization of gold reef in the world. Due to this the country made much wealth and industrial revolution was taken place in South Africa, and after that the country becomes a major industrialized economy.
African common philosophy of country, tenure, and land usage also differs fundamentally from the European or the British concepts of territory as public or private property. These differences in the communal notions led to confusions and purposeful misrepresentation in the transactions between the white people and the government officials with African chiefs in the colonial period.
Cape Town harbour was a trading station of the Dutch East India Company was formed in 1652. Until the 1920s, the traders sold manufactured items to the African communities and isolated white farms and also to the farming towns. After 1910, the Indian workers who were forced to work in sugar factories left these sugar manufacturing plantations and created wealthy trading societies. The Industrial sector in South Africa were growing at an increasing rate after the South African War, and South Africa were the major supplier of the weapons in world war one. By the beginning of World War II, the country was the only developed economy in Africa.
Mining is the largest industry in South Africa. It is having profits from diamonds, gold, platinum, coral reef and rare metals and also coal that accounts for the bulk of foreign exchange incomes. At present, a major portion of these incomes comes from the management and ownership of mines in other countries of the world.
South Africa deals with the U.S. and European Union, mainly with the Great Britain and Germany, followed by Indonesia, India, Malaysia and neighbour countries of Africa like Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
CLASSES AND CASTES:
After the foundation of Cape Town, the physical indicators of ethnic origin served the basis for colour caste system in South Africa. The black peoples were officially confined to an inferior social and economic standing. Despite of such discrimination and the colour bar in the economy, some of the Africans, Coloureds and Indians, were able to obtain a formal education and also the European middle class cultural and economic identity as traders, teachers, farmers, colonial civil servants clerks, and clergy.
POLITICAL LIFE:
Political life in black African communities in which the senior son of the highest or "great wife" of a chief succeeded his father. In practical, succession was not straightforward, and/or brothers, older sons of other wives, and/or widow regents all competed for power. But still a large amount of African leaders founded national kingdoms which includs King Shaka of the Zulu and such others.
The first democratically elected president was Nelson R. Mandela and he remains one of the most accepted political leaders in the world. The nine provinces of South Africa each one with a ruler are selected by the local ruling party and regional ministerial executives.
GENDER ROLES AND STATUSES:
In South African communities women were assigned to agricultural farm duties and to domestic work and child care. Men were used to tend farm animals. And they also did heavy agricultural labour.
Male supremacy is a trait of the entire domestic as well as the working life of all the nation's cultural groups. Men by tradition are the head of the household and are responsible person in the house and power social resources, etc. Sometimes the incapacity of the women creates a complex situation, when a household is headed by a female and does not include any male in the household.
MARRIAGE, FAMILY AND KINSHIP:
Monogamy is the norm in all the groups, but the separation rates are more than fifty percent and cohabitation without marriage is a widespread domestic living the Coloured and black community.
The small and nuclear family concept primarily is in practice by the white families, whereas the blacks, Indians, and Coloureds households are likely to follow the wider extended family concept. Among black Africans, the senior son present at birth is liable to get all the heirs of his father, and was also responsible for supporting his mother. He was also responsible for his junior siblings and also his father's other wives and even their children.#p#分页标题#e#
Traditionally, infant care is the speciality of mothers, grandparents, and elder sisters in Coloured and black communities. The females of all ages used to carry children together with blankets on their backs.
RELIGION:
South Africa is an extremely religious country despite of the socialist roots of the ruling ANC. There is a high rate of contribution and involvement in religious life and proceedings among all the groups of the country. A large amount of population is Christian and a very small amount of Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu communities. The main food in many occasions in the country is accompanied by the ritual slaughter of livestock and drinking of cereal beer and communal ritual feasting. The important ceremonies in the country involved the rites of the life cycle like births, marriage, initiation, and funerals.
All religions and ethnic sub national groups have founded shrines to their custom where historic events had take place. Here their leaders are buried. Otherwise, their miracles are believed to have happened.
MEDICINE AND HEALTH CARE:
The Government-subsidized public hospitals and clinics are overstressed. Even they are understaffed and still they are struggling in dealing with the requirements of the majority of the population that were no served throughout white minority statute. A very much developed conventional medical sectors of the non profit organisations and diviners make available the treatment for the physical and psycho-spiritual illness. This treatment is provided to millions of the black population and it also includes some people who also get cure from modern health professionals and facilities.
THE ART AND HUMANITIES:
Pre-colonial African cultures produced a wide range of artistic artefacts. It is for both use and beauty. Here beauty is as clothing and personal adornment, today these traditions are not only continued but have been developed in new as well as established forms in elegantly fashioned folk and popular craft work and even painting.
During the colonial period, these traditions spread to the non-European population groups who also produced artists, scholars, and public intellectuals of renown despite the obstacles deliberately placed in their path by the White apartheid cultural authorities.
SOUTH AFRICAN LANGUAGES:
The following are the South African languages:
Xhosa– language spoken by 18% of the population.
Zulu–home language considered by 24% of South Africans.
Afrikaans- Majority of the population uses this as their first or second language
Venda- It is also known as Luvenda or Tshivenda.
Ndebele- It is a Bantu language, spoken by Ndebele South Africans
Sepedi- This language is usually spoken by people of Mpumalanga.
Serswana– It is Botswana’s national language.
Southern Sesotho
Swati- Sewati, Swazi or siSwati are all the same language.
Tsonga- This language is spoken throughout southern Africa by the Shangaan - Tsonga culture.
TECHNOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
South Africa has over the past decades developed a big technological base. These base span several organizations, a substantial number of which reside within both public and private companies classified within the industrial sectors in South Africa. As South Africa has the prospect to compete internationally, there exists an huge potential to exploit and leverage selected technologies, in promoting business growth through exports thereby earning foreign currency. It is also essential that South Africa implement its technology strategy so that technology is applied to the maximum benefit of the entire nation and our strengths exploited to their extreme so that the future workforce can benefit as well.
The Innovation and Technology unit (I&T) of the Enterprises and Industry Development Division (EIDD), throughout its Technology Linkages sub-unit provides technology support to industrial sectors with the overall purpose of enhancing industrial sector development. The support process involves interacting with DTI industrial sectors on a number of issues such as sector strategy (e.g. IMS), technology strategy, identification of potential areas for novelty, etc.
One of the needs that were identified as part of the process of supporting industry sectors is the need to have in-depth understanding on technological developments globally. Such understanding and the dissemination of such information is seen to be key to ensuring the long term competitiveness of South Africa’s industries in the global context.
South Africa has huge potential as an investment destination, offering a unique combination of highly developed first world economic infrastructure with a vibrant emerging market economy. It is also one of the most highly developed and productive economies in Africa.
Sound economic policies
Favourable legal and business environment
World-class infrastructure
Access to markets
Industrial capability, cutting-edge technology
Gateway to Africa
Trade reform, strategic alliances
Cost of doing business in SA
Ease of doing business in SA
Competitiveness
Here are few of the reasons and scopes for doing business in South Africa:
TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN VARIOUS SECTORS
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT OF THE ICT SECTOR
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOURISM SECTOR
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHEMICALS SECTOR
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY SECTOR
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT OF THE AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT OF THE AEROSPACE SECTOR
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT OF THE METALS AND MINERALS SECTOR
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT OF THE CULTURAL SECTOR
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT OF THE CLOTHING & TEXTILE SECTOR
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT IN THE AGRO-PROCESSING SECTOR
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT OF THE ICT SECTOR
According to the OECD definition, the ICT sector/industry can be defined to be:
“The industries that produce the products (goods and services) that support the electronic display, dealing out, cargo space and transmission of information.”
The main industries include manufacturing of computer hardware and telecomm equipment, IT professional services, as well as computer software and telecommunication services.
The ICT Sector is regarded as a key sector for potential economic growth and substantial job creation in both developed and developing countries, as witnessed in the growth in this sector over the last decade.
Gartner grouped these trends into three arenas recapitulating the future landscape:
The society will be connected and there is a need for mobility technologies which include wireless, wearable’s, Wi-Fi, ultra-wide band, smart phones and location-based services;
there will be an increase in smart networked objects which include technologies like RFID, MEMS, smart dust, digital ink and embedded computing) and
There will be semantic connectivity including technologies like Semantic Web, XBRL, automatic tagging, affinity profiles and information extraction.
Although South Africa’s share of the global ICT market is small at approximately $US 10 billion (BMITech figures).It is concluded that the following technologies are of specific importance for the growth and continued development of the sector within South Africa.:
Mobile technologies and devices
Wireless network technologies
Human Language Technologies
Open Source Software
Telemedicine
Geomatics
Manufacturing Technologies (Robotics/Artificial Intelligence)
Grid computing
RFID
The major industries include manufacturing of computer hardware and telecomm equipment, IT professional services, computer software and telecomm services. (OECD 2008: 18; SAITIS 2009). In order to identify the various technologies and technology areas within the ICT sector a categorization done by Gartner in 2009 subdivided the major industries into further sub-sectors as outlined below in Table.
Based on these sub-sectors, the various technologies and technology areas were further developed.
Sub-Sector
Example/Description
Hardware, Servers & Devices including Consumer Devices
Semiconductors, Personal Computers, Battery technology, new-age hybrid consumer devices.
Fixed & Wireless Telecommunications & Networking
Mobile & WirelessNetworking/Telecommunications, Satellite Systems, Applications, Services, Communications; Location-based services; mesh networks; broadband & Unified Communications.
System Development, Application Integration, Management & Security
Application Platform Suites, incorporation Brokers, Platform Middleware, Web Services, Information Security
Supply Chain & Customer Relationship Management
Integration of technology into the Supply Chain (E.g. RFID); CRM Technologies
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