World Bank’s $1.5B Loan to South Africa Masks Deeper Economic and Governance Failures

South Africa recently secured a $1.5 billion loan from the World Bank to upgrade its crumbling transportation infrastructure and support a transition toward a greener economy. At first glance, this infusion of funds appears as a lifeline for Africa's most developed economy struggling with bottlenecks in rail, ports, and energy sectors that have throttled critical industries like mining and auto manufacturing. However, beneath this seemingly positive development lies the persistent rot of decades-long poor governance that no bank loan can fix alone. The nation’s slow economic growth and sky-high unemployment rates are symptoms of systemic failures extending far beyond infrastructure...