Introduction

The book attempts to explain the South African economy in detail through examining the South African economy prior to 1994 and after 1994. This book is arguably the only book yet that comprehensively analyses the South African economy and revisits economic policies as well as proposes aspects of an economic policy that could improve the South African economy. This is particularly critical because policy makers formulate policies and make informed (or uniformed) decisions in real time using whatever information at their disposal on current economic conditions. This book tries to help policy makers and practitioners in economic policy decision making, as well as researchers and students of economics and political economy. We have endeavoured to undertake some comparative analysis. We compare South Africa with selected emerging economies; a country in South America (Brazil), a country in Asia (Malaysia) and a country in Europe (Poland) as well as the biggest economy in Africa (Nigeria). Among other things, the first chapter gives the overview of the book and engages with relevant literature as well as explains the historical context that has shaped the South African economy.