SA ‘must address key problems’

● SA’s democracy faces several threats as it heads into an uncertain economic and political future, according to leading figures who took part in a Sunday Times-hosted webinar this week.

Speaking at the event hosted by the Sunday Times and public affairs entity Mkokeli Advisory, former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas cited the one-party dominant nature of the country’s politics as one major threat.

“There is nothing inherently wrong with one-party dominance, at least when the party has good leadership, has vision and enjoys broad stakeholder legitimacy. When things get worse is when the party loses its way. I think that in the last 15 years or so, the ANC did lose its way,” he said.

Professor Barney Pityana said the cult of personality in SA was not helpful. “We name [places] using names of people we regard as heroes. Ironically, we ignore the people in the informal settlements, and yet they carry the names of people, ostensibly that we regard as heroes.”

Michael Sachs, former budget chief at the National Treasury and now an adjunct professor at Wits University, said things were unusually bad “because our politics is in a very painful place [and] because of the pandemic”. But on the other hand, the commodities boom was boosting tax revenue.

South African Reserve Bank deputy governor Kuben Naidoo warned that inequality and poverty pose a significant threat to democracy.

Sunday Times deputy editor Mike Siluma said the factors underlying the recent violence spoke to SA’s unfinished business of nation-building.

Philani Mthembu, head of the Institute for Global Dialogue, said: “If we don’t create the necessary value chains within our region to absorb our populations into the labour market, then what we will end up with is a region on fire, and that will not be good for SA [or] for the rest of the region.”