Whinge, whinge … middle class must trim expectations
One of SA ’ s most serious problems is people who expect far too much. They are not the poor, who are sometimes told they want too much, but the insiders
— the middle class and above. One sign of the latest bout of national gloom is, as usual, emigration talk. The only change is that the “stop the country I want to get off ” camp is now nonracial.
When we compare middleclass lives here to realities in the places many people are fleeing, this sounds faintly absurd. Yes, the economy is weak, but middle-class people here live far better than their peers in many other countries. Yes, there is corruption, but if people fled every country in which the corrupt are a problem, most of humanity would be in perpetual motion. Yes, there is crime, but middle-class people are at no greater risk than those in many other countries where there is no stampede for the exit.
So why are insiders insisting that SA, not particular politicians or parties, is beyond saving? An answer may be expectations that are out of touch with reality. The gloom is based on claims that a change in ANC leadership has not solved all the problems created by the former leader. But it was never realistic to expect it would: problems created over decades or centuries don ’ t melt into thin air when leaders change.
The change in leadership is blamed for not fixing the economy. But while it is popular to blame every economic ill on a small group of politicians, everyone has a different solution. Which miracle cure are these politicians meant to apply? The answer is none, because the only workable cure will have to be a mix of solutions, which takes time.
It also seems odd to complain that state-owned enterprises were looted for a decade and then expect all this will be undone in a couple of years. Of course, the insiders ’ idea of fixing the problems wouldn ’ t really fix them. The gloom brigade is not too fussed by poverty or inequality — if it were, it would have noticed it long ago. For much the same reasons, we know they don ’ t care much about violence unless directed at them.
What they mainly want to see, it seems, is “accountability ”. But here this does not mean a government that accounts to the people, but jailing some politicians and removing others from public life. This ignores the fact that the Zuma group was only partly defeated at the ANC congress — sane party leaders do not drive out a faction that still holds a large chunk of elected posts in the party.
“Accountability ” also imputes magical properties to the new leaders of the criminal justice system, who are apparently meant to build instant winning court cases against people with access to very fancy lawyers using anticrime machinery that has been compromised for decades. (Of course, when highprofile politicians such as the former mayor of Durban are charged, this is simply ignored).
What the gloom fails to see is that a 10-year descent that threatened to turn the government into a piggy bank for the connected was halted, at least partially. The result has not turned the country into the wonderland it has never been, and many of the politicians it propelled into office are less than inspiring. But the change did show that the country can protect itself against “state capture ” and did create the possibility of something better.
That promise will not be realised if those who could contribute to it prefer to bemoan the fact that the politicians they despise did not hand them on a platter what can be achieved only by thought and effort.
● Friedman is research professor with the humanities faculty of the University of Johannesburg.