Dr Roelof Botha is currently Joint Managing Director of GOPA Group SA, a multi-disciplinary research company that specialises in development facilitation. He has been an economic advisor to PricewaterhouseCoopers for the past 17 years and is an experienced presenter & sought after consultant. In 2005, he received the Sake-24/ABSA award for Economist of the Year, based on the accuracy of forecasts of key economic indicators. He is a regular commentator on topical macroeconomic issues (in the national and regional media) and has authored more than 100 articles, books and research publications. His broad experience includes management accountant of a listed industrial company, financial editor of a daily newspaper, economic policy advisor in the Department of Finance, senior economics lecturer at the University of Pretoria & University of Johannesburg, chief economist of the South African Federated Chamber of Industries, and visiting lecturer at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) & Tshwane University of Technology.
Over the past two decades, Dr Botha has delivered more than 300 presentations at seminars, conferences and management briefings. Many of these presentations have covered overviews and forecasts of key economic indicators such as GDP growth, inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, globalization and the rise of the emerging markets. In his own unique style of blending the serious matters of economics and politics with the lighter side of life, Dr Botha has managed to captivate audiences around the country. Most of his presentations are regarded as broadly motivational, in terms of highlighting research that confirms numerous positive structural changes in the South African economy, including an objective reflection on the prospects for sustained development and socio-economic stability in the Southern African region.
