PHUTI MAHANYELE-DABENGWA | South Africa well placed to seize new economic opportunities

This past week, I joined a roundtable in Brussels, making the case for South Africa to European investors and diplomats.

While the world arguably faces the most turbulent geopolitical backdrop in decades, the interest in a country like South Africa, a prime investment destination on the African continent, has not waned.

But the world today is very different. The post-war multilateral order that governed how capital moved and how emerging markets grew is fracturing fast. Investors are doing more than just optimising for return; they are stress-testing for resilience. And the question they are asking is fundamental: in a world fraught with uncertainty, where do we put our confidence?

The world has operated within a relatively stable global framework over the past few decades. That framework is now being contested. The countries that emerge stronger will not be those with the most resources but those that recognise the disruption as a structural opening to seize. South Africa could be one of those countries. But only if it chooses to be.

Over the last two years the investment case for South Africa has rested on reform. And the markers are clear: load-shedding is behind us, rail volumes are recovering, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) greylisting is a thing of the past, and a credit rating upgrade reflects improving institutional credibility.

But the question now is not whether South Africa is reforming. It is whether it can convert reform into the kind of consistent, predictable operating environment that makes capital allocation a rational decision rather than an act of optimism.

Capital that once flowed towards the highest return is now flowing towards reliability, alignment and reduced exposure to trade tensions.

South Africa’s position is asymmetrically interesting and under-appreciated. It is not caught between competing blocs. It has institutional depth, functioning capital markets and a diversified economy connecting into the fastest-growing trade corridors on earth.

The African Continental Free Trade Area — 54 countries, over $3-trillion (R51.4-trillion) in combined GDP — is a strategic asset few markets can genuinely claim proximity to.

South Africa’s position is asymmetrically interesting and under-appreciated

As the South Africa Investment Conference (SAIC) convenes this week, the question is how we convert commitments into disbursed, job-creating investment. The conversion rate of SAIC pledges is the number that matters most, and its organisers must be credited for directing the focus beyond just the rand value of investments pledged to whether these translate into the jobs we desperately need.

One dimension of South Africa’s potential to create new forms of livelihoods remains underweighted: the digital economy — an enabler of participation at scale.

At Naspers and Prosus, we see first-hand what becomes possible when digital platforms are deployed deliberately. Tens of thousands of SMEs, marketplace sellers, restaurant partners, drivers and township personal shoppers generate income through platforms that did not exist a decade ago.

It represents one of the most powerful tools for extending economic access to the majority historically excluded from formal markets. This matters because the growth South Africa needs is not growth that accrues to those already inside the economy. It is growth that brings in those who are not.

But the point is not any single company. It is what the platform economy represents at scale and how much larger that scale could become. Platform work has given people flexibility, agency, and new pathways to earning — on terms that reflect the nature of that work.

The question before us is whether the conditions that enabled this growth can be expanded and whether current and future policy frameworks will accelerate or complicate this singular opportunity to create livelihoods at scale.

The global landscape is shifting. Supply chains are being redrawn, and the geopolitical certainties that shaped investment flows for a generation are fraying. In that environment, the current moment is creating openings for markets that offer something different: stability without stagnation, institutional credibility without rigidity, and genuine access to the world’s most dynamic growth region.

That description fits South Africa. Our fundamentals are more compelling than they have been in over a decade: a stabilising fiscal trajectory, a reformed energy landscape and a political settlement that has restored a degree of policy predictability.

The investors I speak to are not sceptical of South Africa’s case. They are waiting for the evidence to compound: for timelines to shorten, processes to simplify and commitments made by business and government to become reality. The signal they are looking for is proof that the machinery of implementation is turning.

We have reset the narrative and set ourselves on a course for a new chapter. What we now need is delivery that makes that narrative true at scale: felt not only in boardrooms but in the daily experience of businesses large and small, of workers and communities across the country.

The time to work for that is now. And the work must be concrete, measurable and relentless.

• Mahanyele-Dabengwa is group executive director of Naspers and Prosus