South Africa at Cross Roads
Albert Einstein said it was the pinnacle of folly to do the same thing repeatedly and then expect a different outcome. This wisdom is now very relevant in South Africa. Millions of voters have just voted for the same government for the sixth election since 1994, according to which Statistics South Africa recently recorded record highs in unemployment. There are now 20 million people of working age in the country who are unemployed or not studying!
Unfortunately, this is not all. According to the official economic channel Bloomberg, South Africa has deteriorated more than in any other country that has not been in a war for the past 12 years. The latest report by Eunomix Business & Economics quoting Bloomberg shows that, according to a wide range of indicators, South Africa has dropped from its 31st in 2006 to its 88th position out of 178 countries. Bloomberg also expects the decline to continue due to the effects of the Zuma era and failure to make necessary policy changes.
Despite this, most voters voted again for the ANC. This is because they believe pres. Cyril Ramaphosa is the only person who can repair the catastrophe of the Zuma era and improve their lives. The problem is that the ANC has now got a new leader, but it’s still the same ANC with the same policy. That is why the political scientist, dr. James Myburgh, says it is not possible to get out of the current crisis with the same ideology and policy that dragged the country to the edge of the abyss.
The ANC Plan
That’s why it’s time for new thinking. The challenge is that the ANC determines country policies and that the election once again proves that the majority vote for “their” party’s identity rather than its strategy. Of course, everyone hopes that pres. Ramaphosa governs better, fight large-scale corruption, and improve business confidence. Described as “The ANC Plan”. There are signs that the president is starting to act against corruption, as can be seen in the work of various commissions of inquiry, including the Zondo commission investigating state capture.
The big gap in the ANC plan, however, is that there are not enough signs that far-reaching policy changes are needed to get the country back on track. Eskom remains the best example. Despite this large-scale crisis threatening the country, noticeable policy changes such as privatisation, independent power generation or adaptation of draconian racial policies implemented. It doesn’t predict anything good for the success of the ANC Plan, and it looks like “more of the same” is the best one can expect.
Capital Migration
If things don’t improve noticeably quickly; the stream of Capital flowing out of the country will grow until it becomes an avalanche. Of course, this leads to a vicious circle, because the more Capital pulls out of the country, the harder it will be to keep a modern country going. That’s why author RW Johnson said South Africa could have an ANC government or a modern economy, but not both. His statement stems from the growing limitation of many old villages, state hospitals, schools, police stations, public enterprises such as Eskom and government departments.
Prof. Fukuyama, the political Scientist, already expressed the following essential points in this regard in 1993:
“The main obstacle to black social modernisation in the future may well be the belief in socialism on the part of the ANC and its communist allies”.
Socialism has always presented itself as higher and more progressive forms of social organisation than capitalism. But in the contemporary world, socialism has been revealed to be an obstacle to social and economic modernisation — the hallmark of a certain kind of backwardness that needs to be overcome, just like illiteracy and superstition.
The countries of Eastern Europe are now rushing back into the future, undoing the legacy of forty years of dictatorship and socialist planning. Let us hope that South Africa does not move forward into the past.
Given the enormous risks of ANC Plan and the equally significant threat of Capital Migration, it is imperative that the Solidarity Movement’s Plan executed is executed at maximum speed ensures that our top people and our children do not run out of the land, as there will be a free, safe and prosperous future for them here. It will also improve the ANC’s chances of success by helping the economy and the legal order work. We must, therefore, help to ensure that the ANC Plan does not collapse the country, by assisting police with crime prevention by neighbourhood watches, by exposing corruption and by maintaining roads and municipal services.
Solidarity Plan
The risk is on the state. To rely on the ANC Plan is just too big. In Zimbabwe, the failure of the country to an unemployment rate of about 90% has resulted in thousands of people’s pensions being wiped out by the millions of per cent hyperinflation. Graciously, South Africa is still far from that nightmare, but we already have a shrinking workforce where jobs are redistributed according to race without enough new jobs created.
The reality is that the state is weakening and can no longer provide excellent, reliable services to the population such as safety, health, electricity and proper municipal services. The weakening state has destroyed about 1 million jobs over the past seven years, while millions could not create. For this reason, the private sector has been providing more and more private services over the past 25 years, such as private medical treatment, private security and even secluded towns with reliable services. This privatisation has probably already prevented the state from entirely decaying completely into junk status.
The ongoing attacks on Afrikaans schools already show that the future of Afrikaans schools is private, although public schools should be kept going for as long as possible. However, privatised services for which employees already pay taxes are unaffordable for most people, and that’s why our Plan based on affordable community services. These services can be done in conjunction with the private sector while working with the state wherever possible.
Community Services
The Solidarity Movement’s Plan briefly involves reducing our dependence on the state systematically and by increasing self-reliance by prominent self-help organisations. In practice, we have progressed far with it, and offer our full-time staff Movement with the help of thousands of volunteers, a broad spectrum of services. These include safety, municipal service improvement, technical training, a university, Afrikaans media, social care, study aid to thousands of students, legal assistance, international support and school support services.
Solidarity’s planned “Network of Work” is the next exciting phase of the Plan.
The challenge remains to deliver state services without government revenue or a state structure amid a weakening state and under a contrary government. Therefore, we need to think new, because for the solution to succeed, it will be bigger than the problem. While our plans are legitimate and justified, we cannot wait for prior approval, but instead, we will have to ask for recognition in practice afterwards. Our future is too important to leave to the ANC!
