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After more than a hundred years of operation in South Africa, the international energy conglomerate Shell Plc is the latest major company to confirm that it plans to divest from our country due to the inhospitable environment fostered by the ANC government.

Currently Shell operates about 600 forecourts throughout the country. Thousands of jobs are at stake while the ANC, and its prospective coalition partner the EFF, do not care. Both are hell-bent on further entrenching racially motivated statist policies that have no place in a modern democratic South Africa.

The company cited local BBBEE requirements as the primary factor for its exit. The race-based disempowerment policy also has the backing of the EFF. With the ANC likely to lose its national majority, the EFF appears to be aligning itself with the ruling party in hopes of securing lucrative Cabinet positions in a potential post-election coalition that will destroy what is left of our economy and decimate our currency.

Local and international sentiment is at an all-time low. Investors, already disillusioned by the ANC’s unviable approach to running an economy, are fleeing South Africa at the prospect of an ANC/EFF Doomsday Coalition. This is evidenced by the more than a trillion Rand that has already left our shores over the last 10 years. The trend is likely to continue as BNP Paribas, the largest bank in the Eurozone, has also announced its exit from South Africa shortly after Shell’s departure.

The realisation of the doomsday scenario will expedite capital flight from South Africa as crime and unemployment will run rampant.

As a government in waiting our message to investors is clear: the investment environment will be very different after the 2024 elections. We will take decisive action to encourage entrepreneurs and make it far easier to open a business. We will change industrial policy and labour policy that gets in the way of economic growth and employment and will change the model for empowerment to ensure it actually reaches those in need, while moving away from destructive policies that have scared off investors.

A DA-led government will re-position government as an enabler for economic growth and not as a central planner that currently gets in the way.

On the 29th of May South Africans will have the opportunity to rescue South Africa and elect the only party that can draw back investors to unlock the limitless potential of our economy.

Issued by Dr Dion George MP - DA Shadow Minister of Finance