Donald Trump’s return to the White House marked a seismic shift in global politics. A foretaste was provided by “Project 2025", a 2023 conservative governance blueprint by the Heritage Foundation that advocated nationalist foreign policy, deregulation and a shrunken federal bureaucracy. Its proposals included slashing international aid, exiting multilateral institutions such as the UN and turbocharging fossil fuel industries.
For South Africa and its Global South peers, Trump’s renewed tariff wars threaten economic peril. But beyond the headlines lies a silver lining: an urgent impetus for domestic reform. What lessons must South Africa learn from Trump’s next 1,300-odd days in power? Two reforms stand out as non-negotiable.
South Africa’s future competitiveness hinges on its ability to dominate emerging sectors such as renewable energy, advanced manufacturing and space tech. These industries demand huge upfront investment and carry high risks and challenges that well-managed state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are uniquely equipped to shoulder.
By sharing infrastructure and technology, SOEs can derisk private sector innovation. Look no further than Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, a $287bn (R5.2-trillion) state-owned investor; Norway’s Equinor, a state-backed energy titan driving Europe’s green transition; or Debswana, the diamond monopoly that contributes 70% of Botswana’s GDP through public-private collaboration.
This profligacy is unsustainable. Trump’s Doge, rooted in principles of lean, outcomes-driven governance, resonates with austerity-weary voters globally
Yet South Africa’s SOEs remain crippled by decades of mismanagement. The 2012 Presidential Review Committee of SOEs (colloquially called the Riah Phiyega report) exposed systemic rot: political meddling, leadership churn and governance failures. Thirteen years later, its recommendations for a unified SOE strategy, streamlined laws and phased reforms continue to gather dust. Public discourse dismisses SOEs as doomed, but the problem isn’t the model. Rather, it is in how they are run.
Trump’s tariffs, which disproportionately hammer trade-reliant economies such as South Africa’s, underscore the urgency of reform. Privatising strategic assets such as Eskom or Transnet would be catastrophic. Instead, South Africa must recalibrate SOEs to blend commercial viability with public mandates, drawing lessons from India’s National Solar Mission (a state-led initiative that crowdsourced $20bn in private solar investment).
Partial privatisation may suit noncore entities, but energy, logistics and defence demand state stewardship.
Most importantly, excellent financial services SOEs such as the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Industrial Development Corporation and others should be leveraged to work with the dynamic private sector to find and fully fund new SMEs that are orientated towards exports to Southern Africa and even Asia.
South Africa’s executive branch is a monument to excess. The 2025 Budget Review reveals ministers and deputies earn R2.69m and R2.22m a year respectively — more than most Western leaders. Add to that luxury cars, 97 state-owned mansions (worth R1bn) and VIP security (R500m), and cabinet costs balloon to R1.2bn annually, a moral outrage in a nation where 55% of citizens live below the poverty line.
This profligacy is unsustainable. Trump’s Doge (department of government efficiency), rooted in principles of lean, outcomes-driven governance, resonates with austerity-weary voters globally. South Africa’s own 2003 “machinery of government” review proposed similar reforms but was shelved.
Contrast this with Rwanda, which axed 30% of ministries in 2020, saving $100m a year while improving service delivery. I propose South Africa should:
- Slash the number of cabinet portfolios from 32 to 18 (Brazil did something similar in 2019, saving $1.3bn annually);
- Abolishing the deputy ministers and replacing the deputy president’s office with a prime ministerial anticipatory governance Office (PMAG), which would be a strategic nerve centre for long-term foresight;
- Let the PMAG oversee local government, public and private health care, public infrastructure and education (basic and higher), emphasising planning for the future; and
- Merging the department of international relations & co-operation with trade, industry & competition to form a department of international trade & economies, à la Australia’s department of foreign affairs and trade.
As the Marvel character Thanos warned in Avengers: Infinity War: “Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same.”
For South Africa, Trumpism isn’t a death knell but a wake-up call. The nation faces a choice: cling to broken systems or seize this moment to reinvent itself. By revitalising SOEs (learning from Norway and Botswana) and slashing bureaucratic bloat (as Rwanda and Brazil did), South Africa can pivot from vulnerability to resilience.
The goal? To emerge not as a casualty of global chaos but as a beacon for the Global South, a nation that turned crisis into reinvention. The clock starts now.
• Pooe is a public policy specialist at the Wits School of Governance. He writes in his personal capacity.
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.