The end of the lost decade
Several countries have used the term “lost decade” to describe periods of stagnation – Britain in the 1970s, Latin America in the 1980s (“La Década Perdida”) and Japan in the 1990s and 2000s. South Africa’s own lost decade, give or take a few years, started in the mid-2010s. From the pride and excitement of hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup, things started going downhill not long after, culminating in in the devastation of the Covid pandemic, the shame and fear triggered by the July 2021 riots, and the frustration of sustained stage 6-loadshedding in 2022 and 2023.