GG Alcock: Time to recognise millions in SA's flourishing informal economy

GG Alcock's unique background - raised by anti-apartheid activists who lived their values by relocating to SA's poorest area to live like locals - provided him with a very different thought process to his fellows. And he has put it to good use by researching and writing about the country's informal economy, where millions of people earn and spend a huge slice of SA's unrecorded GDP. GG reckons when you add those busy in the informal economy to the official numbers, the country's real unemployment is closer to 12% than the stated 29%. His thesis received support but also considerable criticism from members of the Biznews community. He picked up on the debate in this week's edition of Rational Radio. - Alec Hogg