Parties not up to scratch
No political party has crafted a policy that will alleviate SA’s problems, says an analyst.
Moneyweb
No political party has been able to craft a public policy that would alleviate the problems faced by many South Africans meaningfully, a political analyst argues.
Ebrahim Fakir, director of programmes at Auwal Socio-Economic Research Institute, says political parties appear to propose vastly different political solutions to South Africa’s problems, but are actually very similar in terms of their policy offerings. The Economic Freedom Fighters might offer a distinct set of approaches but the solutions it proposes are not realistic and may push the nation into a fiscal abyss.
Fakir was speaking about the 2019 political outlook at a recent University of Stellenbosch Business (USB) School, USB Executive Development Limited and the Institute for Futures Research event.
Why are the political party’s offerings generally so similar?
He believes it’s due to politicians’ inability to read the nature of changes in the country’s social structure, where four distinct classes have emerged – the super globally connected elite who live in major metros and aren’t solely identified by one race; a well-organised working class; the fragmented working class; and people highly dependent on grants and remittances from family members who largely stay in informal settlements on the peripheries of metropolitan townships.
“I think no political party has been able to craft a policy and political agenda, either in terms of what their own offerings are in terms of the [election] campaign, or in terms of what public policy can actually do, in order to alleviate the problems of these people,” said Fakir.
Demographic shifts
Political parties have also displayed an inability to read the demographic shifts in society, where younger people now form a much larger part of the population. Public policy doesn’t account for their needs.
Against this background, parties come across as having a “hotchpotch” of offerings and there’s a fear that voter turnout in the May 8 election may be lower than usual, which may lead to a credibility crisis, Fakir says.
He says while there is hope, it doesn’t lie with those who are in public authority, but rather with civil society and business.
Fakir adds that although politicians are unresponsive, unaccountable and may face a crisis of credibility, business has displayed much of the same kind of behaviour over the past 25 years.
Unpopular solution
Is there something that can be done? Yes, but the solution’s relatively unpopular.
“The first [step] is that one has to accept the fact that it can’t be business as usual,” says Fakir. Businesses can’t be chasing unprecedented levels of revenue and profit growth over the next decade.
“... It won’t happen, not just because of the environment. It won’t happen because levels of societal trust in organisations of business [are] also declining.”
Fakir says companies need to moderate shareholder expectations around dividends and moderate executive pay, benefits, share options and bonuses. “This is especially true for state-owned enterprises, but it is increasingly becoming true for CEOs in the private sector.”
In the short term, unskilled and entry-level jobs must be a necessary feature of the economy to address inequality and unemployment, he argues.