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- As of 2017, emerging markets account for more than 75 percent of global growth in output and consumption (in market exchange rate terms) (IMF, 2018) and just under 15% of the total value of the world’s stock markets according to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (MSCI, 2018). These economies are therefore becoming too important to be lumped into one marginal class and must be understood as individual nations. Within the framework of this Master’s thesis, the focus will be on one particular emerging economy: South Africa. As member of the BRICS countries and one of the most industrialized country of Africa, understanding to what extent South Africa can be a motor of development for the global economy (and for Africa) is thus important and will probably give insight about the future world order and distribution of labour. The methodology used to conduct the risk analysis is a qualitative approach, using indicators and macrofundamentals variables as inputs to feed the global risk analysis. Using a qualitative method is valuable as it tackles the structures of a country’s development process, which will then allow to identify its underlying strengths and weaknesses. This risk analysis will be divided in three main parts. The first part analyses the economic and financial risks. We identified the high reliance on international capital inflows, the rising levels of public debt and external debt and the many general business constraints weighing on entrepreneurial activity (power outages, skills shortage, regulatory burden and low competition, among others) as being the main risks. Moving on to the socio-political risks, despite South Africa’s major developments and strong constitutional protection for human rights, the analysis concluded that the country remains plagued with historical trends of endemic corruption, clientelism and a high level of crimes and violence. The social climate surrounded by inequalities, poverty and unemployment has indeed led to growing social tensions, which in turn has increased the phenomenon of brain drain. The last socio-political risk identified is related to demographics: a growing and ageing population could have significant impact on government (already pressured) spending. Finally, the last part of this risk analysis stemmed from exogenous risks. We observed that water scarcity is the biggest threat, taking into account current and future consumption patterns combined with amplified impacts of climate change (droughts). Furthermore, water scarcity associated with an already existing problem of sanitation increases the risks of outbreak of diseases. We conclude by stating that, while South Africa is likely to remain Southern Africa’s gateway, its longer term positioning towards Africa and the world stage remains less certain. For South Africa to move up the global value chain, a growth relying mainly on high value-added manufactured goods is needed to stimulate a more stable global demand. However, South Africa’s re-industrialization remains a challenge and the government has not yet demonstrated enough political will and coordination to implement the needed reforms.