Chris Hattingh
Chris Hattingh is Executive Director at the Centre for Risk Analysis (CRA), where he leads strategic briefings for clients across South Africa and internationally. His focus areas are trade, investment, economic policy, and foreign policy.
Chris serves on the Executive Board of the Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance, sits on the advisory council of the Initiative for African Trade and Prosperity, and holds a Senior Fellow position at African Liberty. He holds an MPhil in Business Ethics from Stellenbosch University.
Tau is right about the decline, but the remedy misses the cause
24 July, 2026
Parks Tau, Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition, told a defence industry conference in Pretoria this week that South Africa must confront three decades of decline in its arms industry. Defence force acquisitions from local manufacturers fell to R850m in 2017 from R26.2bn in 1989/90. Over the same period research and development funding dropped to about R500m from R6.1bn. Employment across the sector collapsed from 130,000 people across 3,000 firms in 1990 to 13,000 people across 600 firms today.
South African households taking strain
23 July, 2026
CRA Executive Director Chris Hattingh unpacks new data showing the increasing strain under which South African households find themselves.
Why SA cannot subsidise its way out of becoming a failing state
16 July, 2026
South Africa is once again arguing about the Automotive Production and Development Programme (APDP). The key question is not whether this one programme pays for itself, but whether South Africa can keep subsidising firms and sectors while the basic services those firms depend on keep failing.
From rivers to substations: Gauteng's infrastructure is failing in real time
14 July, 2026
CRA Executive Director Chris Hattingh examines the ongoing infrastructure failings in Gauteng, with a focus on river pollution and sub-station vandalism and theft.
Eskom's transmission standoff
08 July, 2026
CRA Executive Director Chris Hattingh unpacks the public fallout between Eskom and BLSA, and the wider implications for electricity security in South Africa.
Treasury freezes municipal grants
07 July, 2026
CRA Executive Director Chris Hattingh unpacks National Treasury's decision to freeze July payments to more than 60 municipalities - including Johannesburg.
Your July bill is going up
07 July, 2026
IRR researcher Anlu Keeve joins Chris Hattingh to discuss the latest rates and tariffs increases facing households in Johannesburg, as well as the tariff calculator she built for the CRA.
72% of South Africa's municipalities can't pay their bills
26 June, 2026
CRA Executive Director Chris Hattingh unpacks the Auditor Genera's latest findings on South African municipalities.
