Marius Roodt | Aug 24, 2019 Not if we stand up against bad policy now.
South Africa seems to be at a precipice. Every day there is more bad news. Just a few weeks ago we learned that more than ten million of our fellow citizens are without work, unable to provide for themselves and their families, and suffering from the indignity that joblessness brings. We also read about how foreigners are continuing to sell off assets on the JSE at alarming rates, and how emigration is spiking. And then there’s the parlous state of many of our public hospitals and schools, and the latest Eskom bailout, which is going to come close to bankrupting us.
But perhaps the most worrying aspect of all of this is that we have a governing party in the form of the African National Congress (ANC) that seems either incapable of or uninterested in fixing these very serious problems. Instead of looking for ways to make our country prosperous, the ANC continues to look to implement wrong-headed policies, such as the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI), or its stubborn commitment to eroding property rights through some sort of policy of expropriation without compensation (EWC). At the same time, we keep hearing about proposals to nationalise the South African Reserve Bank, although it is clear that this will bring no economic benefit.
Crime, including violent crime, is also on the rise again, which has its own consequences. Your correspondent had a gun pulled on him in the Johannesburg city centre a few weeks ago. Luckily I escaped unscathed and still in possession of all my valuables, but it does make one doubt the state of the country and one’s future in it. And my brush with crime was relatively benign. Think of the lives lost every day to criminality in South Africa (nearly 50 over a recent weekend on the Cape Flats).
You could be forgiven for despairing and investigating the family tree to see if you are entitled to a European passport, or seeing what the job market is like in Dubai or in the Antipodes. But is all lost? Perhaps not quite.
In the initial post-apartheid period, South Africa was doing pretty well. As colleague Kelebogile Leepile lays out in our Reasons for Hope report, on most metrics, our country improved on basically every single measure during the presidencies of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. And this can happen again, if we implement the correct policies and abandon plans, among others, to take away people’s property.
And despite our own horrific history, our own research shows that black and white South Africans actually get on fairly well. A recent survey we conducted showed that nearly 90% of respondents felt that the various races of South Africa need one another for the country to be a success. And, to use a term beloved of many, in my ‘lived experience’ this is certainly the case. The vast majority of South Africans – regardless of race – are friendly people, generous of spirit, and committed to building a country that works for all who live in it.
If I am at risk of being accused of being the proverbial straw clutcher, my senior colleague, Frans Cronje, notes that it is in times of crisis that major changes occur. The apartheid government changed course when it became clear that the country was on the brink of disaster. Further afield, consider the case of India; the subcontinent only embraced the free market after it ran out of money in 1991. And see the difference it has made to that country. The rate of poverty in India has declined dramatically and incomes have risen. Although it still has a very large number of people living in squalor, the trend is only positive. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Indian politics, where a nasty form of Hindu nationalism is rising. Let us hope that India’s secular, liberal tradition triumphs yet over the forces of populism and bigotry.
Compared to our partners in BRICS, or our neighbours, however, South Africa is perhaps in good shape. It can be a mug’s game comparing yourself to other countries, but in many ways we are still doing well. For our BRICS friends, things are not all rosy. Hong Kong is in open revolt against Beijing, Vladimir Putin continues to tighten his grip in Russia, and, as mentioned above, India has its problems, too (with something unpleasant brewing in its restive Kashmir region). And this, before considering Brazil, where a strongman who openly admires that country’s former military regime is in power.
Our neighbour, Zimbabwe, is spiralling towards what seems complete economic collapse. (Our own leaders would do well to change our course so not as to emulate those in Zimbabwe.)
And South Africa is not immune from democratic backsliding. In every succeeding election, a smaller proportion of our population goes out to vote, with all the consequences that will have for social cohesion. Violent protests are common and money also seems to be becoming an increasingly influential tool in our democracy (though it was probably ever thus). But we still operate in a relatively free political environment, which is more than many other people in the world can say. Although such estimates can be flawed, South Africa is considered a fairly functional democracy by the people who measure these kinds of things.
So, all is not lost. But it is late in the day and it is up to ordinary South Africans to push back against the bad ideas that will destroy the dream of 1994. Do it any way you can, but fight for a better South Africa for you and for your children. South Africa emerged from the horrors of apartheid and we can overcome the current struggles we face.
At the same time, we should not be naïve. Policies such as EWC, the NHI, and moves to prop up failing state-owned entities with the pensions of ordinary South Africans, represent a clear and present danger. And, if they are implemented, those with the means will flee, others will fall out of the middle class, and the people who will suffer most are those whom these policies are ostensibly meant to help – the poor. The lesson is that we will only become a successful country if we stand up against bad policy now. Work for a better South Africa and know you are not alone.
Marius Roodt is head of campaigns at the Institute of Race Relations.
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