Ramaphosa warned reforms falling behind - little has changed

In May 2025, a confidential briefing warned President Cyril Ramaphosa that progress on key economic reforms was lagging.

- By Setumo Stone

Nearly a year later, one of the measures introduced to address those challenges - a special exemption allowing companies to collaborate in rail and port logistics - has drawn only five formal applications and has yet to produce measurable results.

The government-business partnership briefing privately presented to Ramaphosa stated that “limited progress has been made on actions agreed in previous presidents’ meetings”, highlighting delays across critical sectors.

In logistics, the document noted that rail freight volumes were below target and that port container throughput “has been flat without any volume growth”.

It warned that continued underperformance could lead to “retrenchments in key economic sectors”, "export market share erosion" and place “investor confidence at risk”.

In response, the government had introduced a block exemption to allow companies to collaborate on operational issues such as infrastructure maintenance, freight movement and port efficiency.

However, figures from the Competition Commission show limited uptake.

"Since May 2025, the commission has received five (5) applications under the ports, rail and road transport corridors block exemption regulations,” the commission said.