In South Africa we often spend much time analysing how much power and control the government exerts over our lives and how much havoc that wreaks on our everyday goings on.
It is natural to do this considering we have, according to economist Mike Schussler, the seventh-highest tax to GDP ratio in the world. You wouldn’t think that was the case with how so much of our public infrastructure is falling apart and how many middle- and upper-class families are often double taxed – having to pay for extra security because of the ill-disciplined police force and spiralling crime, paying for private schooling for children, and paying for private medical care because of the abysmal state of public healthcare. Many of our municipalities are also falling apart’ with services either being irregular or non-existent.
It is not all bad news though. There are small rays of sunshine, beamed in from our private sector that peer through the dark clouds of state corruption and incompetence. These rays of sunshine point to how our country can become better and with enough political organisation and will can portend a future in which we can become the first truly world-class African country.
Innovation in schooling
The government spends approximately R1 600 per month per pupil in the state system and delivers terrible results. Half of all schoolchildren who enrol in Grade 1 do not finish high school, 78% cannot read or write for understanding in Grade 4, and there is a chronic problem with teacher absenteeism in schools in rural areas and townships. Yet the Curro independent network of schools built a school in Delft which charges R1 650 per month, has a futuristic model of e-learning focusing on Maths, Science and Technology education, something which is desperately needed if our country will transition more smoothly to a world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Curro founder, Chris van der Merwe, has on occasion in the past offered his services to the government to build and operate schools. This is a good thing and reflects the idea of Anthea Jeffrey, of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), of school vouchers being made available to parents. Private companies could be offered Economic Empowerment for the Disadvantaged (EED) points to top them up (EED is a proposed IRR policy which would focus empowerment on the basis of disadvantage rather than race) There should also be wholesale incentivising of private players like the Curro Group and Spark Schools to build and operate world class schools where usually there is mediocrity. What Curro’s DigiEd school in Delft demonstrates is that our problems are not intractable and that relying on the ingenuity of South Africans rather than faction-obsessed cadres and incompetent state actors can break our (racially) bifurcated education system and deliver an opportunity-rich society for all children, regardless of background.
Innovation in healthcare
Perhaps the most instructive story as to the shambolic and awful state of our healthcare system comes the news earlier this month that 700 patients had to be evacuated from Charlotte Maxeke Hospital because of a fire, that started in the special dispensary stores as a result of the poor maintenance of the ailing infrastructure. According to Fire Ops South Africa (a privately owned firefighting operation) CEO, Wynand Engelbrecht, it was compounded by fire hydrants that were not in working condition. This is not surprising as a 2017 report from the Future Health Index ranked South Africa last among 19 nations in a global survey that measured healthcare system efficiency – the ability to deliver maximum results at the lowest possible cost.
Dr Nthabiseng Legoete, an effervescent and passionate medical doctor, founded Quali Health in response to some of the problems that ail our overburdened public health system. Her aim is to provide quality, accessible and convenient healthcare for neglected working-class people (those who earn between R3500-R4500 per month) in townships who often cannot afford to take a lot of time off work to get to crowded public facilities but who also cannot afford often expensive doctor fees. Quali Health’s all-inclusive fee of R280 and the clean and well-designed premises signal to their customer base that they are valued and worthy of good care, something which is important in a deeply class stratified society like South Africa, and where class problems are deeply racialised. Despite the government’s dogged insistence on a financially unsustainable National Health Insurance system, Dr Legoete’s relative success with minimal funding does show us the possibility of raising the standard of care across the board in an efficient manner and, more importantly, of trusting the ingenuity, passion and problem-solving skills of talented South Africans.
Other examples
There are other examples of private sector efficiency and ingenuity in industries like construction and housing. For example, Cape Town-based UBU re-invents the possibilities for low-cost housing using materials usually used in the construction of shacks and informal structures. There is also Port Elizabeth-based Moladi, founded by Hennie Botes, which utilises patented moulds to rapidly erect low-cost, labour-intensive and quality homes. Unsurprisingly Moladi has been embraced in other countries like Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and Jamaica but Mr Botes’s offers to government, like many other entrepreneurs, have fallen on deaf ears.
We need opposition parties like the Democratic Alliance to embrace innovative private sector players in their thinking, planning, policy, and rhetoric as the ultimate problem solvers to the many, but not intractable problems which bedevil our country. We need a political class that gets out of the way and lets South Africans be the ultimate solution to our country’s problems.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR
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