How we can help save our country
LISTENING to Malusi Gigaba’s first and last Budget speech, with his new teleprompters hidden behind a mini jungle of greenery, delivered in a monotone, was perhaps symbolic of the body politic behind the words and message.
The ANC is incapable of arousing the collective imagination of the country, something we need if we are to avoid the abyss which the Zuma/Gupta/state capture necrosis pushed us to.
The ANC will be the government until next year, after which we must pray and work for a government of coalitions or new alliances, comprising progressive-minded people who will put the country first. I was hoping President Cyril Ramaphosa would have removed Zupta-stained Gigaba before the Budget speech, and replaced him with someone experienced in finance.
I hope Ramaphosa will be man enough to cast a wide net in appointing new cabinet ministers to replace the rotten corpses he inherited. A true leader would look to a multipartisan cabinet that comprises some of the best people in the country. Similarly, when he gets to clearing out the rot in the state-owned enterprises (SOEs), he should in a likewise fashion appoint smart, experienced individuals, regardless of political affiliation.
The Budget speech was patently a vote-garnering gambit and not directed at what South Africa needs to get us on track to becoming a winning, progressive nation. Countries like India, China, South Korea, Thailand, have gone from being dirt poorto one on the road to prosperity.
China has taken about 800 million of its citizens out of poverty in the past 20 years, while Africa has put 600 million into poverty during the same period.
When Ramaphosa said we have a plan – the National Development Plan, he should have said we would look at the China and Korea of 20 or 30 years ago and do what they did. We need to ensure high quality training and education, and forgo our slothfulness and tendency towards liberal mediocracy. As a nation, we must prepare ourselves to work long, hard hours for less than we think we are worth. Our children will reap the rich rewards as the children in China and Korea are doing.
We in Africa are doing something wrong. No one owes us anything. All countries have a history of conflict, wars of subjugation, liberation and emancipation. Winning countries are those that get over the history without looking to the past for the rectification of the present. Germany, Japan and China were flattened in “our” lifetime. They worked and built up winning nations. In his State of the Nation address, Ramaphosa failed to mention the need for South Africans to rise to the occasion.
The Budget made a big deal of free higher education. The country is almost broke and yet we are prepared to commit about R50 billion for free tertiary education, something First World, rich countries can’t manage. What worth is a degree that requires a 30% pass mark? That was a cheap scam to win votes.
Why did the Budget not announce that all high school leavers with marks above a certain grade, say 75%, would be entitled to state bursaries? Clever incentives could encourage more students to lean towards maths and science. We are producing unemployable graduates who are functionally incapable, numerically illiterate and, in many cases, unemployable. .
We need a new culture in the teaching profession; one of self-sacrifice and professional dedication. The South Africa Democratic Teachers Union has ruined the teaching profession. This needs fixing urgently. Throwing money at it and issuing worthless certificates is not the answer.
Something to contemplate for the coming few years:
Sell 10% equity of all SOE every year for the next four to eight years and ultimately reduce state ownership to 0%. If allowed to operate as listed companies, the likes of Transnet, SAA, the SABC and Eskom – would be profit centres, net employers and contributors to the fiscus.
Put education into the private sector which produces most of the top rankers every year.
Put the health system under private ownership.
Free education at all levels with the achievement of certain levels of competence. Make education worth something.
Reduce the bloated, festering cabinet by half
Impose hefty fines on trade unions that embark on unprotected strikes, and punitive fines for damage to property.
Land is a big issue but productive farm land is more of an issue for our survival. The government can give freehold title to the millions of hectares of land that it owns.
Provide new land owners with the tools and know-how to farm new land. We are a food-scarce country and a food importer. We need to keep productive farm land in the hands of farmers who know how. Farm land must stay productive at all costs. Parktown North, Joburg