Grow the cake, for all our sake

You might have thought that the dire state of the economy and the downgrading of the country’s sovereign credit rating by rating agencies would be the main issue of debate among ANC officials jockeying to win the presidency of the ANC in less than three weeks. Not a chance.

We have just been downgraded by S&P Global – again – at the weekend, a decision with dire consequences for foreign direct investment and job creation.

In any normal mature country with a sophisticated electorate, this would be cause for national mourning and much soulsearching. Candidates hoping to win the ANC presidency would be forced to tell us their economic plans and what they would do to turn the economy around.

That most have not even bothered to talk about the economy says a lot about their disdain for the voters. They must think the people are imbeciles.

Apart from Cyril Ramaphosa, who has talked about a “new deal”, the other six presidential contenders have been reticent on their plans for the economy.

A couple have mentioned “radical economic transformation” – whatever that means – which appears to be a plan to just grab a slice from existing white-owned businesses instead of growing the economy and establishing new black-owned companies, much like the Afrikaners did when they took over the running of the country from Britain.

The Afrikaners created their own companies such as Sanlam and Naspers, to name just two giants of the corporate world, and did not obsess over or covet what the English had built.

Sadly, the ANC does not seem to grasp this concept, and instead is intent on redistributing a small cake that has stopped growing. It’s a recipe for economic suicide.

It’s the same recipe that led to economic disaster in Zimbabwe, which today has a 90% unemployment rate and does not even have its own currency after it collapsed under the weight of grand corruption, economic illiteracy, and gross mismanagement of the economy by Robert Mugabe.

It is scary that the leading ANC candidate, Nkosazana DlaminiZuma, is a disciple and proponent of “radical economic transformation”. For our sakes, let’s hope she also does have a proper, viable plan.