The built-in hassle that's holding South Africa back

Share current article via Email Share current article via Facebook Share current article via Twitter Share current article via LinkedIn The writer argues productivity is not just about how hard someone works between 8am and 5pm, but it also depends on the ecosystem far beyond the office, factory or shop floor. Picture: Story audio is generated using AI South Africans spend a great deal of time debating how to create more jobs, attract investment and grow small businesses. With unemployment at 33.6% and 8.5-million people out of work, productivity is understandably part of the conversation, but our problem is not a lack of willingness to work. The bigger problem is the environment in which that work happens. Productivity is not just about how hard someone works between 8am and 5pm. It also depends on the ecosystem far beyond the office, factory or shop floor. Consider the daily commute, for example. Research from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows that South Africans spend an average of 107 minutes travelling to work via train, 84 minutes on the bus and 63 minutes in a minibus-taxi; even those with private cars spend an average of 44 minutes getting to work. Spending such a long time simply getting to and from work is as much an economic problem as it is a transport one. Every hour spent travelling is an hour of productive capacity lost. Time that could be spent working, studying, caring for children, building a business or just resting. Then there is the financial cost. Research from StatsSA tells us that an average South African household spends about R3,000 a month on transport, which makes commuting the third-largest expense in the country, right behind housing and groceries. Transport minister Barbara Creecy just this week announced plans for more affordable vehicle finance and improved licensing and testing for the minibus-taxi industry. Productivity can disappear in dozens of less obvious ways like when the electricity goes out, when water supplies are interrupted, when unreliable internet makes a payment system go offline, when goods are delayed due to poor road infrastructure or when a municipal approval takes too long. For a small business owner, transport is only one part of the productivity problem. Productivity can disappear in dozens of less obvious ways like when the electricity goes out, when water supplies are interrupted, when unreliable internet makes a payment system go offline, when goods are delayed in transit due to poor road infrastructure or when a municipal approval takes too long. None of these losses necessarily appear on a balance sheet as lost productivity, but they are real, cumulative and expensive. A large corporation can absorb inefficiency by buying generators, installing backup connectivity, maintaining larger inventories, or employing additional administrative staff, but for an SME operating on tight margins, these problems can be the difference between growth and survival. There is an uncomfortable contradiction here. We want South African companies to buy locally, manufacture locally and create local jobs, but producing something locally usually costs significantly more because of electricity, transport, logistics, water or other infrastructure constraints. If it costs more to make, move and sell something in South Africa, the market will inevitably look elsewhere, as shown by the success of platforms such as Shein and Temu. We cannot simultaneously demand localisation and leave local production carrying an infrastructure penalty. The same applies to job creation. We urgently need businesses to grow and hire, but businesses cannot just create sustainable jobs out of thin air. The economics of growth need to make sense, which is why the infrastructure conversation is actually a jobs conversation. It is also why the productivity conversation cannot be reduced to individuals. The National Treasury has recognised that South Africa's infrastructure deficit is limiting productivity and increasing the cost of doing business, citing transport bottlenecks, water insecurity and uneven municipal service delivery among the constraints. But this is not an impossible problem to solve. Business productivity was a central focus at the Business Unity South Africa (Busa) annual general meeting last week, which offered valuable insights into what the continent is doing to drive competitiveness. In Morocco for example, the government has recognised infrastructure as an economic enabler rather than simply a public-sector responsibility, investing heavily in infrastructure while accelerating digital transformation, and as a result the domestic economy grew an estimated 4.9% in 2025, its strongest growth in a decade. Locally, Volkswagen's Kariega plant in the Eastern Cape is a good local example of what happens when manufacturing, infrastructure, suppliers and export logistics work as an ecosystem. Volkswagen has invested more than R10bn in the plant since 2011, helping to support its expansion and continued competitiveness, and creating about 50,000 indirect jobs through its supplier network. South Africa has sophisticated financial markets, deep private-sector expertise, entrepreneurial talent and world-class businesses. But our talent cannot compensate indefinitely for systems that waste time and increase costs. We do not need another lecture about working harder. Instead, we need to remove the friction that makes work harder. • Mtwentwe is a certified internal auditor, MD of Vantage Advisory and host of the SAICABIZ Impact Podcast.