Real GDP per person during each president's tenure

Every president since 1991, ranked by how real GDP per person 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	+31.5% Q1 1999 → Q2 2008	+3.0%/yr
2	Nelson Mandela	10 May 1994 – 14 Jun 1999	+7.3% Q1 1994 → Q1 1999	+1.4%/yr
3	Jacob Zuma	9 May 2009 – 15 Feb 2018	+1.2% Q1 2009 → Q4 2017	+0.1%/yr
4	Cyril Ramaphosa	15 Feb 2018 – now	−5.1% 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 per person, 2015 prices, last four quarters · Statistics South Africa quarterly GDP via the IMF (constant 2015 prices), summed over the trailing four quarters (the World Bank's yearly GDP before 1993), over Stats SA's mid-year population estimates (the World Bank's before 2002) interpolated to the quarter · South Africa data · as of Oct 2026.