Excuse my rant

Is SA the next Zimbabwe? Of late I must admit this has needled me quite a bit and I’m sure this question has crossed the minds of fellow South Africans.

There are those who insist this will never happen. This school of thought is based on the fact that we love this country too much to believe this could be true. The other school of thought is yes, we are. We are the next Zimbabwe. This is based on observing what transpired in Zimbabwe and what we now see in South Africa. This is further evidenced by the fact that the ruling party has lost all sense of responsibility, accountability, integrity, involvement and moral high ground.

Enough has been said about the ANC proposal to muzzle the media. At the core of this “proposal” is the need to strike fear at those who dare to point out the obvious. This “proposal” needs to be thrown in the rubbish bin where it belongs. This will not unfortunately stop future attempts. So, yes, SA is the next Zimbabwe. Here is the proof.

Holly shit! Who comes up with this rubbish? Do the authors of such documents actually believe what they write? Who are they? Who gets to edit and approve it?

ANC: “While there is broad agreement about the pillars of an equitable development strategy, some key debates remain. These debates relate to the balance of power and ow nership, including the potential of nationalisation; the function of narrow BEE, in the sense of measures that require businesses or the state to finance individual black ow ners; whether short-run capital inflows should be taxed; how to overcome apartheid settlement patterns; how to shape a developmental state that can carry out a systematic development strategy; and w hat monetary policy is needed to support more equitable growth.”

LN: What? Oh yeah, silly me, this is what is meant. How silly of me to think that ramble had anything to do with actually the millions of South Africans who live under the poverty line.

ANC: “South Africa’s deep inequalities result from the exclusionary and divided economic and social systems established under apartheid. These systems privileged a minority by depriving the majority of access to assets, including land and finance; quality education and certified skills; decent government services; and access to market institutions. They aimed both to reduce the majority to poorly paid w age labour and to limit migration into the cities. That in turn provided more opportunities and state resources for the minority.”

LN: Really? Really? The ANC has had the opportunity to do something about this since 1994 but have not as it is more important to line the politically connected pockets. Has service delivery improved since 1994? Since 1994 do we have improved roads, schools, housing and health? My old Lower Primary in Emdeni, Soweto, school still has no windows? It still has a coal stove in the centre of the room. Really?

ANC: “Food insecurity is not only a rural question, since a large proportion of seriously hungry people live in the metropolitan areas, especially Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Cape Tow n and OR Tambo. However, there are rural dimensions, w here for example, rural households pay more for the same food basket than in the urban areas. Addressing household food and nutrition security is an extremely low cost way of underpinning livelihoods, well being and developmental growth. It will help bring down the future costs of health care and improve education outcomes. Inclusive growth is impossible without it. Solutions w ill involve a combination of social and economic interventions – including industrial interventions for food fortification and supplementation, food storage, food production, and pricing through the value chain.”

LN: It therefore makes sense not to do anything about it because soon the people will make the run for private property ala Zimbabwe and by then it will be too late.

ANC: “Strengthening the asset base of poor communities and households by providing housing and infrastructure w ith an emphasis on urban densification.”

LN: What is wrong with this?

ANC: Making big private business more socially accountable, for instance through competition policy, by amending the Companies Act to support greater transparency and broaden representation on boards of directors, and by requiring greater transparency and accountability from SOEs and DFIs.

LN: So, my private company has to be socially accountable? What does that mean? Do I start a company to be socially accountable or maximise profit? See a pattern here with Zimbabwe? Capital flight?

ANC: “Discouraging conspicuous consumption by the rich through taxes on luxuries such as highpow ered cars and homes as well as consistent messaging and leadership by example by the government and the Alliance.”

LN: Since when does any government/party have the right to dictate taste or want? Do we see a pattern here to our neighbour, Zimbabwe? It would be great, however, if we could have leadership by example.

Excuse my rant. I could go on and on about the content of the document but you should take time to read it. If you read this ANC paper and think to yourself “we are going to hell in a hand basket!” you are not alone.