Foreboding of another ‘new dawn’

The year 2094 is calling … or is it 1994? It may be best to avoid friends and family this weekend. Not because of anything political or because the weather might be rubbish, but because there is a “bacterial infection” on the loose.

Everyone has it. Even the president, apparently.

That would explain the brain fog that must have clouded Cyril Ramaphosa when trying to reflect on the successes of his government during the State of the Nation Address on Thursday, when he defaulted to memories of post-apartheid euphoria and fevered dreams of a futuristic South Africa.

His critics have since suggested he may have been hallucinating when giving an example of government’s progress through the life of “Tintswalo”, the fictional character who was housed, fed and educated by the state until she lived “a better life”. But one Tintswalo doesn’t make a summer.

Anecdotes are convincing, but facts are stronger. These tell us that for every three pupils that start school in Grade 1, one will drop out. Nearly one in 10 beneficiaries of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme won’t be funded in the next academic year. Nearly two in three young people in South Africa do not have a job.

While Ramaphosa is right to reflect on the services provided over the past 30 years, he should not use these as a badge of honour. Progress is expected when you’re in power and with access to over R1.5 billion a year in revenue.

Providing food, security, education, health care etc should be expected – not a sign of success. Its deterioration and absence is the more frightening reality.

Ramaphosa’s grand plans for the future also seemed more wishful than based in reality: to capitalise on international conflict by offering services to re-routed trade ships, introduce a highspeed train, Johannesburg-Durban, become a global leader in renewable energies and embrace electric vehicle manufacturing.

These plans could have him remembered as the “great fixer”, or will take another “new dawn” to recover from.

There was no mention of possible coalitions after this year’s polls. Doing so may have come across as defeatist, but Ramaphosa needs to calm the nation’s anxieties on the possibility of a “coalition from hell” at a national level.

We need to know that there is a clear plan to avoid a much bigger and complete state capture, and deterioration of all governance.

Otherwise, there may not be a future to speak about.