Foreign governments fret over SA’s move to ‘autarky’
south Africa is heading towards “autarky”, a much greater self-sufficiency that includes trade protectionism, in its economic policies.
The government began bringing the economy “closer to home” before the Covid-19 crisis but seems to be accelerating the move since then.
That’s the view at least of some of the country’s trading partners. They worry about a push to contract manufacturing value chains down to the region or to Africa; to localise much more manufacturing and to give the state greater control of the economy.
This would run counter to globalisation and free trade and thereby deny foreign manufacturers and suppliers beyond Africa a chunk of their share in the SA economy.
Western diplomats discern signs of these tendencies in recent policy pronouncements by the ANC and by the government, particularly .
