Real GDP during each president's tenure

Every president since 1991, ranked by how real GDP changed from their first day in office. Politare shows what happened during a tenure; it does not claim the office-holder caused it.

#	President	In office	Total	Per year	Chart
1	Thabo Mbeki	14 Jun 1999 – 25 Sep 2008	+45.9% Q1 1999 → Q2 2008	+4.2%/yr
2	Jacob Zuma	9 May 2009 – 15 Feb 2018	+15.2% Q1 2009 → Q4 2017	+1.6%/yr
3	Nelson Mandela	10 May 1994 – 14 Jun 1999	+14.2% Q1 1994 → Q1 1999	+2.7%/yr
4	Cyril Ramaphosa	15 Feb 2018 – now	+5.2% Q4 2017 → Q1 2026	+0.6%/yr

Sorted by total, highest first. Every row is indexed to the last quarter complete before the first day in office ("from" marks a start that had to move because that period had no data, or because the period cut it); Levels are per cent changes, rates are differences in %; "per year" compounds levels and divides rates. Tenures with under 12 months, or under three observations, are left out. R trillion, 2015 prices, last four quarters · Statistics South Africa quarterly GDP via the IMF (QNEA, B1GQ, constant 2015 prices, not seasonally adjusted), summed over the trailing four quarters, from 1993; the World Bank's GDP at constant rand before, rescaled to 1993 · South Africa data · as of Oct 2026.