Zuma's promises melt in the global economic heat

A cynic was talking to me the other day about what he called “crippling the power of the delivery myth”.

He was telling me that as much as President Jacob Zuma is a source of inspiration and hope, the poor and disadvantaged must resign themselves to eating the pie in the sky.

He insisted that the impact of the global economic meltdown is not going to spare South Africa from its harshness just because the new president is a nice man.

He went on to speak about the economic capitals of the world economy, which include the United States, United Kingdom and European Union, and how these determine what happens across the globe.

He insisted that the economic capitals have a common way of looking at the world and that, inevitably, has an adverse impact on what happens in other parts, including South Africa.

“The political fat cats in government must just grow up and correct the expectation that Zuma is going to solve their problems,” he said.

“The innocence of the liberation heroes has long been lost and it is time that people wake up to the reality of world affairs.

“It is now time that African masses be put in touch with reality to realise that government cannot fulfil their material hopes and aspirations.”

For me, my cynical friend was highlighting the inherent conflict between the African National Congress’s promise of a better quality of life and the irony of realpolitik that says promises may not be fulfilled. At least, for now.

Over the last few months, there has been a lot of political talk about jobs, employment opportunities, skills development and giving people hope in the face of the global economic meltdown.

But one cannot escape the fact that what is happening at General Motors in the US, for instance, has a direct bearing on what happens in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape.

But a failure to deliver will, therefore, have little to do with Zuma and more to do with the state of the global economic heat.

For those with innocent aspirations and hopes for a better world, it will be very important to exercise patience and open their eyes to realpolitik, which essentially means confronting the fact that catastrophic circumstances happen in global politics. And Zuma has the will but lacks the power to change what is happening in the world overnight.

Back to my cynical friend’s view about the global condition with which the Zuma government must contend: It was as if he was saying “Zuma’s team must learn what they can do and what you cannot do quickly. It is very important that they make it very clear to the highly expectant poor people what they can deliver and what they cannot”.

The gap between what is hoped for and what can be done is considerable.

Certainly, there will always be elements that, rightly or wrongly, become impatient with the consequences of inequality. But we need to understand that we are all being hit by the global economic meltdown. It is hitting the rich and the poor, black and white, the Western world and Africa and Zuma and Obama alike. No part of the world is spared from its adverse repercussions.

The moment has come too soon for everybody to confront the delivery myth that Zuma’s government may be different to Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki’s government. In fact, freedom and democracy do not equal the land of milk and honey and thus not everybody’s needs will be satisfied.

We have to understand and sympathise with Zuma and the situation he finds himself. The grim reality is that so many of the poor, unemployed people that he had hoped to rescue cannot be rescued because of the state of the world’s economy. Yet at the same time, the material aspirations and hopes of the great suffering African masses will continue to soar sky high before … they explode like “the dream deferred”.

But in spite of the concern voiced by cynics, there remains the hope that this global recession, too, shall pass; that Africa’s hope will overcome the big problem created by economic giants.

There is no doubt that Zuma and his energetic team have thought very hard about the state of world affairs and the challenges it imposes upon them. They know that they cannot give up and the people who look up to them for leadership are, fortunately, not quitters themselves.

In fact, none of us can afford to be passive. This is a moment in history when we are all called to be agents of the change that we want to see happen in our lives.

It is time for us to work together to save ourselves from the worst in the world.