South Africa ranked at #61 in the Global Innovation Index 2025
This year's GII report is really just a snapshot of wasted potential. If you want to make your blood boil - read it.
The 2025 edition of the Global Innovation Index ranks South Africa at #61 (inline with our previous ranking) out of 139 countries for innovation, behind regional competitors Mauritius and Morocco.
Overwhelmingly what's letting the country down in its performance is (surprise, surprise) the dismal incompetence of the government.
No country spends as much on education and generates as poor a return on investment as a result. Not only that, but our graduates are of a supremely poor quality - more interested in becoming 'social media influencers' than pursuing careers in innovative fields.
Rather than being fixated on a nonsense metric like the Matric pass rate, we should rather be aspiring to improve the quality of our educational output.
The report offers, once again, a few glimmers of hope as to how South Africa might improve its overall competitiveness on the world stage, but without a competent government with a strategic vision to outperform on the innovation front, there is no chance of improvement.
The private sector can only do so much without the support of the government. As a simple example - the lack of grant funding for things like Design Indaba and the Oranjezicht City Farmer's Market (a major generator of tourism spend in the city) is simply outrageous.
But we carry on accepting incompetence and just shrug our shoulders as always.
This year's GII report is really just a snapshot of wasted potential. If you want to make your blood boil - read it.