Political interference

THE reshuffling of the cabinet has not surprised me.

I think it is outrageous to expect the new president to install a team entirely of his own, given the deep divisions in his party, the very poor state of the economy, the backward national standards of South African living and the fact that this country has simply become a place its citizens can (financially) not afford to live in.

I cannot wait for us to arrive at a place where we afford matters of economic development and engagement the same importance we do to political issues.

The sector of politics has been allowed to impose itself on our young constitutional democracy, with destructive consequences.

At this moment, every other legitimate sector is taking its cue from the sector of politics, which, I might just point out, has been wholly incapable of managing its own affairs with distinction. This, for me, is the difference between Third World thinking and developing world aspirations.

Very soon we will have the implementation of the knee-jerk, partially free higher education system implemented by politicians in a sector which, in my view, has enough depth to be fully independent and freestanding.

Apartheid administrators held a similar view to the ANC government – that education is a political matter and must be managed by the state. How wrong they have been proven by history, and how blatantly have their real intentions been laid bare.

If the South African general public, operators and investors in our economy do not pay attention to these kinds of undertones, we too will become a society at the mercy of politicians, like many one-party states and former dictatorships.

The reshuffling of political cabinet is much less important than the return of the former insurance company, turned financial services business, to the country, I’d say.