How to get government moving country forward

SOUTH Africa’s robust democracy is failing the electorate. We tear ourselves apart instead of thinking things through.

Politicians should debate among themselves. Opposition parties must put the ANC’s policies and track record under a microscope, and suggest alternatives.

They should scorn bluster, insults, excuses, scapegoating, meaningless slogans and empty promises.

The questions that must be asked: Why does South Africa not have the same economic growth as China or India?

Why are we the most unequal society in the world, with intolerable unemployment even though the government collects more than 25% in taxes of every cent earned?

What benefit do we get from the ever-increasing government debt?

We can learn from the Jewish sages who debated and wrote the Talmud over 3 000 years.

They argued for the sake of heaven and not self-interest.

We seem stuck on failed policies, even worse ideas from the EFF while others seem afraid of the ANC and EFF’s backlash, lies and smears.

Debates will allow the electorate to identify capable, intelligent and ethical leaders and should be refereed by skilled people keeping the debaters on track to find solutions.

The audience could select a winner, technology could involve the wider population and newspapers could stimulate debate.

Opposition parties must drive the process. Debates we should have:

Corruption started after 1994 when the ANC went into business with Hitachi, building boilers for Eskom. It accelerated with the arms deal and became uncontrollable under Jacob Zuma. Political parties should be forbidden from getting involved in business and it should be criminal for them to interfere with the civil service.

Cadre deployment should be criminalised. No civil servant should be allowed to be a political party member. South Africa must use the talents of all its people.

The costs of BEE are prohibitive and a smokescreen for corruption. I know of only three extremely successful African entrepreneurs – Patrice Motsepe, Herman Mashaba and Mathews Phosa – who might have benefited from BEE but did not need it, and have criticised it.

The size of the civil service must be reduced and salaries curtailed. There is an excellent maxim in the Talmud: “Fifty productive men are better than 200 who are not.”

Trade unions bear a responsibility for our woes. We once had thriving industries, but they were mortally wounded by irresponsible trade unions. Political parties should be forbidden from having alliances with trade unions.

Communists use anti-business rhetoric to undermine society. The SACP must fight elections on its own.

Even talk about expropriation without compensation adversely affects perceptions of South Africa. The constitution allows fair and equitable expropriation. A fair valuation for undeveloped land or land owned by absentee landowners could well be R1.

The South African Reserve Bank escaped capture, but one can only speculate on the motives of the EFF and an ANC faction pushing for a change in ownership which undermines investor confidence.

The ANC is damaging our relationship with Israel and the Jewish people. Israel has powerful friends in Russia, India, China and Brazil, not to mention Europe and the US. It is a technological powerhouse.

Arab nations are coming closer to Israel and Palestinians are changing. Nazareth, the largest Palestinian city in Israel, re-elected the mayor in a landslide on a pro-Israel and friendship platform with the Jewish people despite Fatah and Hamas’s efforts to label him a traitor.

Politicians are not leaders; they follow the electorate.

BRIAN MASSEY | Glenhazel