Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
PLAYING TO THE GALLERY
Much more than political posturing needed to fix South Africa, say experts
IT WILL take a more than politics of spectacle, theatrics and howling by opposition parties in Parliament to turn around the political and economic state of affairs in South Africa.
That was the shared view expressed by panellists and experts at the Wits Business School post State of the Nation Address analysis yesterday.
After a turbulent start to President Jacob Zuma’s speech on Thursday night, his party praised it for its authenticity, while other were harsh in their criticism that his address was proof that “when all else fails, there is self-delusion”.
Former Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi led the charge against Zuma’s speech yesterday, describing it as “a demonstration of a government that no longer knows its ideological stance”.
“What we saw was the breaking down of trust – a demonstration the contract that should exist between any government and its people has been broken,” he said.
“It was a demonstration of policy incoherence. One sen- tence appears to be speaking to the ordinary people in the streets and the next sentence is speaking to international and the next is not speaking to anyone.”
Vavi said South Africa was like a ship in a deep ocean on a very dark night, with the captains blindfolded and without any compass at hand to determine in which direction the ship was moving.
He said the disconnect between rulers and the ruled was so disproportionate that it had become a problem.
Vavi was said if he were “an investor waiting to be inspired to spend R1.5 trillion that big business is keeping in their banks, I would have not been inspired to want to spend a single cent more in the SA economy”.
“The crisis remains and the distrust has even deepened. South Africa has been tranquillised by broken promises. The Sona proved that when all has failed, there is still selfdelusion.”
Susan Booysen, professor in the Wits School of Governance, said the speech was evidence that changing times were ahead. “We saw a president who gave the signals, he had quite a few phrases to suggest that he has been listening. But there were no concessions on the very crucial things, like corruption.
“I don’t think the president gave policy certainty,” she added.
In terms of concessions, these were made on several fronts, including on the nuclear position which Zuma said would depend on affordability.
Political economist Moeletsi Mbeki said Zuma mentioned that life expectancy had increased, but made one “crucial omission” on the detail.
“Firstly, the information that was held back was that the ANC government was party to the decline of life expectancy in the way they managed HIVAids.
“Secondly, why it started going up was because of the Treatment Action Campaign and the Constitutional Court. But he is claiming credit for the government. We were only given half of the story,” he charged.
Mbeki added that corruption, which comes”cost-free”, was the consequence of lack of competition in politics in South Africa.
“All you have to do is spend two years telling the public that ‘no I am not paying any money back’ ( for the Nkandla upgrades). Then, when the Constitutional Court comes, you say ‘I will pay, so let me walk away from this situation’.”
If there was real political competition, corruption would carry a high cost, he said.
Panellist Sithembile Mbete, lecturer and PhD candidate in Pretoria University’s political sciences department, said con- spicuous omissions from Zuma’s speech included the axing of Nhlanhla Nene from the finance post and the issues of basic education, good governance, corruption and higher education.
She said while Zuma was the focus of so people’s frustrations, he was not solely responsible for the country’s problems. “The obsession with Zuma’s recall is preventing us from looking at political mechanisms... that we have to unblock to bring about the change that we want.”
thabiso.thakali@inl.co.za