In a year of mixed economic results for South Africa, Limpopo has emerged as a standout performer, recording one of the nation’s strongest growth rates for 2024.
According to the latest Statistics SA’s provincial GDP estimates, Limpopo’s economy expanded by 0.9%, a feat achieved despite significant headwinds in its traditional primary sectors.
“The growth was primarily driven by a surge in the finance, real estate and business services industries, alongside a robust performance in personal services, which includes health and education. These sectors were bolstered by gains in utilities, transport, communication, general government, manufacturing and trade.
“This broad-based expansion successfully offset poor performances in agriculture, construction and the province’s hallmark mining sector,” Stats SA wrote.
The Limpopo Economic Development Agency (Leda) attributes this resilience to a longer-term strategy of economic diversification and a concerted push towards
industrialisation.
“The province has made considerable strides over the past decades,” said Leda spokesperson Leo Gama. “Driven primarily by the boom in global commodity prices and favourable macroeconomic conditions, the provincial economy has grown at an annual average rate of more than 0.1% between 2012 and 2025.”
Gama highlighted that Limpopo’s inherent strengths lie in its abundant natural resources, which provide comparative advantages in mining, tourism and agriculture.
The province is a significant mining region, with more than 108 active projects extracting minerals like platinum, chrome, and diamonds. Its agricultural sector is a national leader, producing 41% of South Africa’s citrus and leading in avocados and mangoes.
However, recent data indicate a structural shift is underway, and to secure growth, the province is actively moving to reallocate capital and labour towards more sophisticated and diverse industries. “To grow the economy, the province is embarking on a process of industrialisation in an attempt to reallocate economic activities – capital, labour, and other factors of production – away from the least productive,” Gama said, pointing to initiatives such as special economic zones and industrial parks as key interventions.
Despite the positive growth, Leda acknowledged significant challenges.
The provincial economy remains vulnerable to global commodity prices, geopolitics and climate change, which heavily impact its key sectors. But the current average growth rate of 0.1% falls far short of the Limpopo Development Plan (LDP) target of 2.2%, a rate deemed necessary to tackle the province’s profound economic challenges, most notably unemployment.
A central concern is that the current growth, driven by skills-intensive tertiary sectors like finance, is not yet genera-ting the widespread employment needed, as it moves the economy away from more labour-intensive primary sectors. In response, the provincial government is pursuing a multi-pronged approach in partnership with the Department of Higher Education and Training.
“Efforts are underway to encourage enrolment in artisanal and vocational programmes to equip learners with practical, marketable skills,” he said.
Critically, the LDP has placed the responsibility for future job creation squarely on the SMME sector.
“The province is developing a targeted programme to address the main challenges for small businesses, particularly those in townships, including lack of finance, access to markets, and regulatory red tape. The agricultural sector is also identified as having significant potential to create new jobs by 2030,” said Gama.
