Author: John Galindo

At a moment when South Africa confronts its most severe fiscal constraints since democracy—with debt servicing costs projected to reach R478.6 billion by fiscal 2027/28, exceeding combined spending on health, basic education, and social development—the global architecture of industrial policy has undergone a fundamental mutation. The era of passive state intervention through subsidies and tax incentives has ended. In its place has emerged what can only be described as the age of the Sovereign Venture Capitalist—governments taking direct equity stakes in strategic enterprises, fusing the roles of regulator, investor, and national security custodian. For South Africa and the broader SADC…