The fundamental claim of How South Africa Works is that the overwhelming challenge that South Africa faces, and has to date failed to address, is unemployment. The current unemployment statistics are appalling and fall especially on young African youths who were promised a better future in 1994. If the unemployment challenge is not addressed, it will be impossible to sustainably lift many millions of people out of poverty. How South Africa Works begins with a review of South Africa's major economic challenges and then describes what it might be reasonable to expect after twenty years given the experience of other countries. It then focuses on specific sectors - agriculture, manufacturing, services, and mining - that are both critical to the country's future and illustrative of the policy challenges that leaders face. The sector studies emphasise the incentives and choice sets that government, business, and labour actually face and why they make the decisions that they do. It examines the social grant and education to understand if South Africa has established mechanisms where people can not only escape destitution but be ready to be employed. Finally, it identifies steps that some of South Africa's most exciting entrepreneurs have taken to build world-class enterprises to both highlight success in current circumstances and to learn from these efforts.