Post by account_disabled on Mar 11, 2024 4:40:31 GMT -5
South Africa is often the first choice for global entrepreneurs looking at Africa: it has strong and well-regulated financial, legal and telecommunications institutions, and has a diverse and developed economy. However, the country faces a multitude of problems, some inherited from the apartheid system and others new, that hinder economic efficiency and job creation.
Roughly
The South African economy is mainly supported by the agricultural and mining sectors, although their importance in the economy as a whole has gradually decreased, while the services sector is the one that employs the largest number of people; the manufacturing of consumer products (mainly food and beverages), vehicle assembly and automotive parts manufacturing, refining of crude oil and petroleum derivatives; The tourism industry is gaining more and more importance, although burdened by high citizen insecurity.
South Africa has eleven languages recognized as official in its constitution, of which the most spoken are Zulu, the mother tongue of the people of the same name, the largest in South Africa; Xhosa, which is also the name of the language and the majority ethnic group after Zulu (both languages have many linguistic similarities), and Afrikaans, the mother tongue of both the Afrikaner and the majority of the Colored .
English is considered the lingua franca of business and commercial operations, government and the media, and is generally understood and spoken in urban areas as a second language by many. For marketing and sales purposes it is worth remembering, however, that belonging to the ethnic group and using their mother tongue is a source of pride for South Africans.
At the top of the socioeconomic pyramid Portugal Mobile Number List is the white minority of South Africa, which in turn is divided into the Afrikaner and Anglophone communities, and which due to notable differences in their mentality and culture should not be confused; This group generally (although not always) has the lifestyle and income closest to that of Western Europe, as does the small South African Jewish community, very influential in business.
This segment of medium to high purchasing power can also include the growing black professional classes (the so-called buppies or Black Diamonds ), although it must be taken into account that this market segment is very different from the previous ones in its tastes and customs.
It is also worth highlighting the weight of the large colored community , of mixed race, with a greater presence in Cape Town and the province of the Western Cape to which it belongs, as well as that of communities of Asian origin: such as the Cape Malay , descendants of workers from the Dutch East Indies, of Muslim religion; South Africans of Indian descent, very present in the country's commercial fabric, and the growing Chinese community, the largest in all of Africa, located mainly in Johannesburg and also very significant in commercial activity. Each of these groups presents a market segment with its own characteristics, culture and preferences.
The base of the purchasing power pyramid is made up of more than half of the population, mainly black and colored , and especially vulnerable to the country's serious socioeconomic problems. Frustration and discontent over deficiencies in the public health system – especially efforts to contain the HIV/AIDS pandemic –, the education system, crime and corruption control, and job creation mechanisms are left felt increasingly, and represent a threat to the stability and future prospects of everyone, including the most recent members of the middle class, whose progress is very exposed to a setback due to risks in the economy.
Despite all the efforts and initiatives to repair the socioeconomic consequences of apartheid , – such as the Equal Employment and Affirmative Action policies, which give preference to groups discriminated against before 1994 (more specifically the black African population) in obtaining certain advantages, such as the hiring and granting of state contracts – remains a long way from closing the gap between urban, industrial, wealthy, and mainly white South Africa, whose advantages are accessible to just over a quarter of the population, and rural and/or urban fringe South Africa where the majority live; In general, there is fear of a slowdown in the entry of the most disadvantaged groups into the middle class, and a worsening of inequality, which is already one of the highest in the world.