ANC policymakers out of touch

POLICY and reality are often in conflict. It’s all very well to have Utopian ideals of socialist revolutionaries like Karl Marx and Lenin but implementing them may be an Herculian task.

The ANC policymakers are often out of touch with reality. They cannot envision that their policies may not be suitable for our country and cause more harm than good.

The ANC sings out its slogan “jobs for all” but its policies do not encourage but stifle job creation. A third of our workforce is unemployed and they cry out for jobs.

For an emerging economy grappling with large-scale unemployment, our stringent labour laws strangle the private sector, which is forced to shed jobs to remain profitable. Mines scale down their operations, some even shut down, scaring investors away.

Tourism is a labour-intensive industry, and with our weak rand tourists should be pouring into the country to take advantage of the favourable exchange rate. But the government’s new visa regulations discourage tourists. Even KZN Premier Senzo Mchunu complained of this. Well, he should address his concerns with his party.

One of the biggest failures of the ANC has been education. Like a quack who endangers a patient’s life by attempting an organ transplant, the buffoons in the education department liberalised the schools, hastily did a head transplant, severing off apartheid education and transplanting OBE, even though it had failed in other countries. Our education has been plunged into the throes of death, as the education authorities make desperate attempts to save it by jolting it with electric shocks, leaving teachers and pupils sicker. THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN

Silverglen