I said it
before and I’ll say it again, what a time to be alive. I’m reading this book
called Sapiens at the moment, an interesting account of humanity and what I’m
realizing is that the current state seeming disequilibrium that I believe the
world finds itself in, is nothing new. We’ve been having it as it were.
South Africa
recently celebrated Freedom day, 27 April, a day a man once known as a
terrorist by his oppressors and their friends, became rebranded and hailed as
the father of Rainbow Nation, our unifier, Madiba. Did his terrorist ways
change or did they now accept what he was asking for all along…the right to be
treated as human in their own land?! I remember and am grateful for those lost
souls.
With this
remembrance in mind, I’ve booked my flight to Joburg, organized a flight
special vote for Monday, but now I’m absolutely stumped. I’m voting because to
the depths of my being I believe it is the right thing to do, but absolutely
not because I am convinced to vote for someone. The saddest thing though is
that I had the same feeling in 2014 when I cast my absentee vote in Accra. We
hear of/from the likes of Black first land first, but in my mind they are like
that damn mosquito when you really want to sleep, UDM lead by my former leader,
during our time in the Transkei, the FF+ and new kids on the block Good amongst
others, but allow me to pass some musings on the loudest 3.
The EFF
Man say
what you will but these guys are popular and they definitely have changed the
political landscape in South Africa. Prior to their appearance in Parliament,
if I spent 5 minutes watching the Parliament channel on DSTV it would have been
a lot, now I watch with interest and sometimes frustration with some of their
tactics. They appeal to the youth and disenfranchised. I mean that march they
orgainsed to Sandton a few years was something to behold, I can’t remember any
other political party being able to pull off those numbers and these people
were walking! They were the Kingmaker in PE, Joburg and Tshwane during the last
local government elections. They have a bunch of younger adults who have great
ambition and have refined their tact somewhat over the years. Their leader is a
smart man, imagine what he could have achieved had the practices of the past,
afforded his family the opportunity to provide him with better access to
quality education in his younger years…who knows maybe that would have stifled
him 😊. Many of their leaders have taken the
opportunity to further their education and kudos to them…. BUT personally, I
have huge reservations about them. A lot of what they espouse smacks of
socialism and I’m not saying socialism doesn’t work, because there are a lot of
Scandinavian countries that have a strong socialist tinge to it but their
economies and systems are a whole lot mature than ours.
Anyone who
has Venezuelan and Zimbabwean economies as role models may struggle to convince
me about where they want to take an economy I contribute to, sure external
factors such as sanctions play a role, but nah man. Their leaders have been
embroiled in what some may I label unsavoury accusations regarding corruption
and the downfall of VBS bank being the blot that seems to be booming, where the
majority who stand to lose are \-those that can ill afford to part with their
hard-earned wealth. They deny this but their denial has been quite muted, it
bears no comparison to the boisterous remonstrations against a one Mr. J G
Zuma. In a country as violent as ours, their leader threatens to throw a solid
object at a fellow parliamentarian if I am not mistaken, their SG not once but
twice (as far as I am aware) assaults someone, one of their top brass is recorded
physically abusing a security officer and the one that grates me the most given
this society where violence against women is already at such unacceptable
levels, this attack on reporter Miz Brown. What kind of leadership is this I
ask? On their manifesto, the highlights I managed to read place a lot of onus
on government in respect of delivery. Land, jobs, construction…there was also
once talk of nationalization of mines, banks, etc. government running things
and creating jobs and getting things operating, yep we see how well that is
going at the moment, even SARS the once darling of our state-owned
entities…flopping!! In my very limited experience of government, government’s
role is to provide CLEAR and workable policies and leave the private sector to create
these things you aspire to achieve.
DA
The party
with so much potential but dare I say a lot of navel-gazing results in them
scoring own goals. Over the past few years I have been fortunate enough to work
with a lot of its members and from my point of view well meaning people. The
Western Cape’s Premier elect, Alan Winde is a man I’d go into battle with. A
man who had a cosy job being minister of economic opportunities…CEOs, board
rooms, fancy living. As soon as he got elected as premier elect, he was like
forget this thing, let me go and understand what is going on in safety and
security. Crime in this part of the world is one of the main things that is
holding our people back from being great. Call it electioneering, popularity
seeking, but whatever his perceived reason, he didn’t have to do it. They are
far from perfect, but working with them to in some way help facilitate job
creation in SOUTH AFRICA, makes my job not feel like work. If media reports are
to be believed, their coalition seems to be doing a good job with the Tshwane
and Joburg municipal finances which should allow for infrastructure upgrades
hopefully.
BUT in my
mind they just don’t seem to get it…
Things like
saying that you are going to do away with BEE and look at a policy that looks
at disadvantaged period. The thinking may make sense to you, but lets use an
example that I like to use often, Heyneke Meyer, former Bok coach, picks his
first Springbok team and I forget the exact number but a significant majority
of the players picked were either Afrikaans or former Bulls players, now I don’t
know the man so I’m not saying he’s racist, but what I’m saying is that unless
guided out of your comfort zone, people will tend to revert to what they know
and let’s face it, the South Africa economy is still largely in the hands of
people of a lighter hue. If you don’t believe me come and attend any industry
event we host here. 😊 one of the biggest arguments
against BEE is that it allows for window dressing…hmmm. Many of us ask is Mmusi
really the leader of the DA? I raised that perception that many of us have
directly with him a few months ago. Some other people I have chatted to give me
some talk of collective leadership…akin to Siya’s Bok captaincy…whaaaat?!! I
digress. Some other random observations…I see a poster that says “Keep
corruption out of the Western Cape” but wait did you not just spend the longest
time getting beaten in court trying to get rid of one of your own because she
was allegedly corrupt? A counter argument would be ya, but now she is gone,
well the ruling party would then argue so is our main guy and we are working on
the others…As long as there are humans in the system, there will be a place
where we fall short. Another red flag for me during this whole saga was that I
hardly heard from the leader of the party. There were 5 or so allegations
levelled against her that to this day many ask me why she is no longer there
and in as much as I may have my own assumptions, I have no answer that I am
convinced of. Things like register to vote to keep the ANC and EFF out could
easily be interpreted by those that will to read register to keep the blacks out.
Some of my mates say but it is the truth, the property prices are so high that
we can’t afford them. Newsflash, try buying in places like Luanda, Cairo,
Nairobi, Lagos, Accra, some of those countries have ridiculous pricing with
nowhere near the infrastructure and very little by way of credit facilities.
I’ll factually defend the good that is being done here against anyone who
brings an emotional or perceived argument, because this province sure isn’t
perfect, but there is plenty good being done here. The best maths pass rate in
the country, healthcare within roughly 30minutes of 91.5% of the population, we’re
disconnected from much of the world, tourism is an easy job creator, ok lets
set up a project that will put forward business cases as to why airlines need
to be flying here… aim was 4 actual to date is 14 new flights landed…so many
micro things they get right that eventually makes the macro a better place. The
result of interventions such as these is that the unemployment here is lower
than the national average and the number of despondent job seekers is also less
than the national average. But as I sit here, with my hand on my heart, I can
honestly say I don’t know who you are, are you a wolf in sheeps clothing, just
looking to protect the status quo? A lot of the noise coming out of the DA is about what the ANC and the EFF are, it's almost like they have been paid to do the marketing for their opposition. It's kind of like someone asking me, hey Yaw who are you and I answer, I'm not like Thanos....well burr, isn't that pretty evident?
Now if I, who is seemingly closer to you
doesn’t know who you are then what does it say about those further afield?
ANC
Oh prodigal
ANC. I won’t spend as much time here, because their achievements and failings
have been well documented for all to witness repeatedly. I’m hard on you
because I expect so much more from you. I know you are now supposed to look
after the well-being of 55mil people and not just 4 or 5 mil as those before
you did, but surely after 25 years you must have gotten a grip on things other than
the purse strings? I owe my ability to sit here, stare at my old University
amidst the cloud cover, writing this mail, that allows me to voice my dejection,
brought about, by what I believe to be our current leadership vacuum, to the
fact that many in your fold and many aligned to you, lost and were willing to
give up their lives so I can have such thoughts about actions due to be
performed in the week ahead. The last 9 or so years could surely not be what
people were willing to die for. You were willing to die so you could sell your
country and services at its correctional services, amongst others for some
steaks and booze? You were willing to die so that you could allow a once well
respected and efficient power plant to degenerate to such a level that the
economy is on its knees. You were willing to die so that 30 odd percent could
be the pass rate at school? You were willing to die so the education system
could be held hostage by a teachers union, with some members who I am lead to
believe, wouldn’t even pass the grades they are supposed to teach. You were
willing to die so that certain individuals could amass obscene wealth whilst
the people you were willing to die for don’t even have running water or decent
ablution facilities? You were willing to die so that the people you spoke in
the name of would have homes built by your cronies that wouldn’t even last the
first heavy rains? You were willing to die so some chief operating officer
could take to the airwaves and proclaim 90% content on our local broadcaster,
further crippling its already crippled financial situation. You were willing to
die so that our national carrier could continue to flounder? You were willing
to die so that you could cripple both our revenue collection services and our
crime busters so those that rape the system could continue unabated. SURELY
NOT?! Surely…
I will be
honest, if president Ramaphosa was running on a different ticket my musings
would have been shorter, because a lot of what he has done, as chequered as it
may be in part, what he has done since taking office gives me some sort of
hope. Things such as immediately taking over the levers of government that are
key for the economy(finance, minerals and energy, public enterprises). They
launched a few rather public commissions of enquiry, they have got a new
National Public Prosecutor, a new revenue commissioner etc., but as with the
DA, I am somewhat lead to believe that in some shape or form he is currently
leading in concert because his is a pretty tight rope to walk given the current
state of the party. The party needs to be put on terms. Even if they win they
should be around 55% or so, so they faction that believes that the state
coffers are their piggy bank are made to know that this is not behavior that
the public expects from the party they have voted to govern them. They need to
know that the shit that we are reading, I’m sure more is to come, IS NOT OK! If
they get 60% plus they will be like what a bunch of buffoons we govern over, we
can run amok and they will still come back to us…SHAME on us.
I mentioned
a topic twice….’leading in concert’. Another conversation that has been floating
in my head recently, looking not only at us as a nation, but the world as a
whole, is what is the real use of politicians? I look at all the strife in the
world and it is can be attributed to one sort of natural disaster or another,
flood, fire, politicians 😊 Is a social construct of some sort
not a better way to rule? But I guess that in a way would result in a
figurehead leading the charge for such reform. Sigh…
I guess
this confusion of choice leads me to another thought I’ve been having. This
thing called democracy. Is it really working on this continent? I look at this
country of ours and the same constitution, as great as the world sees it, gave
us Nelson Mandela and also Jacob Zuma. We have the land of my birth, Ghana
where land is split into kingdoms and chiefs and the elders have the greatest
say. A lot of what we still rely on is infrastructure left by the colonial
master and built upon by Kwame Nkrumah. Surely it has to be an indictment on
us. We have a political system where it seems that every 8 years there is a
change in ruling party and in many instances potentially useful projects (for
the country) started by the opposition party are not continued by the new
ruling party with some of the reasons being that once complete the credit will
largely befall the opposition party that started the project. I mean have you
ever??!! I look at a country like Rwanda, from where it has come from and its
trajectory, it is nothing short of amazing right, some people may label its
ruler as bordering on the undemocratic type, but some of the progress the
country has shown in the amount of time it has, makes me wonder if it is indeed
a bad thing? Some of the countries in South East Asia that we are often
compared to, had similar situations where they had a leader with a vision and a
group of people that he would rely on to deliver or question some of their
thinking and now look at them…
This continent has most probably the youngest population of any of them, but
some if not most of our leaders are amongst the oldest in the world. We look at
a place like Zim, Bob was 93 when he got shoved aside by a now 77 year old
Mnangagwa, Tunisias president is 93 this year, Cameroon’s Paul Biya 85, Nana
Addo from Ghana, 75 possibly going to run again next year. People are talking
about the 4th industrial revolution and the presidents are saying
please fax me notes on this (facetious I am, but you get the drift) We need
some guided youth in our leadership echelons I’d say. The percentage of
Africa’s population under 25 is 60% or so, surely some of these grandpas and
great grand pas should be taking up the roles of the elder statesmen and
guiding the youngsters into their roles?
In my utopian world I’d see a government made of all those looking to run for
power, agreeing that the people first, then us. Every decision made or agreed
to is made in order to see how the life of the average Josephine will be made
better. I know that by definition narcissism is a trait synonymous with the
term politician, but wouldn’t it be great if there is a new breed of politician
who like most of us, gets a salary to deliver a job based on KPIs and goes out
to make sure that they and their teams deliver on these things?
I have been trying to write this blog for a few days and man for some reason
this evening as I sat here all these thoughts just started coming at me and I
hope I articulated them well.
Fellow
South Africans, next week please don’t be lazy, remember that many died so we
could go and stand in queues to make our mark. This country is great and will
continue to be great, I remember in 94 the amount of fear that reigned, but we
went on to have the best economy we have had in the longest time. The last few
years have been tough and the tensions amongst us as citizens, fueled by the
politicians haven’t helped but I truly believe that if we found a way to
disregard their noise and stood together we can fix this thing for all, mainly
for those who don’t have, and trust me when I say if your heart is in the right
place this place can be fixed. Go out there and make your mark!
