The economy of transition: South Africa at the turn of the century

In the 1970s South Africa changed from a high-growth to a low-growth economy. ¹ During the previous century the rate of growth appears to have been one of the fastest in the world. National income grew by 5–6 percent per annum in real terms from the beginning of the 1920s to the end of the 1960s, driven by a high rate of capital formation, constant real wages as a result of discrimination in the labor market and tariff protection of the manufacturing sector. Before World War II the growth impulses were generated mainly in the mining sector. During the post-war period manufacturing gradually took over this role.