The time has
come
21-April-2008 - Africa's
economic renaissance seems long overdue. While India and china are pushing
forward with economic evolution, Africa continues to be trapped in a post colonial
subsistence, peppered with petty wars and regressive dictators. While many
argue that Africa finds her plight on the back of poverty and poor support
from the developed world, few are actively pursuing the economic reform to
break this cycle.
South Africa has emerged
best from its colonial past, perhaps due to its fortune in natural
resources, although more probably to its history of sound economic policies
well planned infrastructure and strong central government. This competitive
advantage however is beginning to slip.
Recent surveys show South
Africa's lead in education, health care and infrastructure is eroding while
the government’s response has degraded to little more than retrospective
blame passing. Under these conditions South Africa's economy will fall
behind its neighbours and foreign competitors.
South Africa finds
herself thus at an important economic crossroads, a choice between
struggling indefinitely with her passed, laying blame and fighting problems
as they emerge or in some way renucleating the
progressive thinking that defined her independence.
South Africa is not the
first to reach this juncture. China, although much larger in land mass and
populous, foresaw the importance of capitalist economic reform in 1980 and
created the special economic zone of Shenzhen to act as the nucleus for
economic stimulation. While at the time China still strongly embraced
communism their leaders saw the need for a progressive initiative, not as a
short term solution to an immediate problem but as assurance of China’s
prosperity in the years to come. That zone has grown and today its sound
economic policies have infected much of China.
While the benefits of a
similar initiative in South Africa may only be felt in some years to come,
it is clear that the lack of such projects in the past are now crippling
South Africa's progress.
The ANC seem to have
deliberately overlooked such forward planning since taking the political
lead in 1992 and have instead concentrated their political efforts on popularist political pandering rather than sound socio
economic planning. Similarly the DA, who while being a strong voice of
political opposition have failed to leverage new initiatives from its
political position.
A special administrative
region (SAR) in South Africa would offer the country a chance to renucleate its economy, stimulate foreign investment,
raise standards of living, and pursue stricter policies on crime. It would
offer South African's, and eventually the whole of Africa, a guiding light
toward sound socio-economic ideals and bring about a sensible shift toward
more progressive thinking among politicians and the electorate alike. A
continuation of backward looking and finger pointing politics in South
Africa however will achieve little and ensure South Africa falls behind the
development of a more progressive world.
If the crime
doesn’t get you the courts might
19-February-2008 - I am
concerned to read today of something that has become far to common in South Africa, the effective victimisation of law abiding citizens - not by
criminals but now by the failing and inept criminal justice system. The
story tells of an attempted robbery gone wrong and a Clairmont
resident now being held for an attempted murder. The reported victim of
this attempted murder was caught in the act of braking into the resident's
car and steeling his radio and wallet. Police spokesperson Captain Elliot Sinyangana said the resident found the man getting out
of his 4x4 just after 7am and ...."screamed at the man, who then came towards him with a
sharp object. It is not known if the suspect had a knife or a
screwdriver." The Claremont resident apparently fired two warning
shots into the air, then fired at the alleged
robber as he continued to run towards him. The man fell down and the
resident called the police. Clearly a case of attempted murder......right?
Why with its record crime
levels and a relatively ineffective police force does the press – and
possibly the courts - not believe it is legal to defend one’s own property?
Why does this story not read "Criminal stopped in his tracks by quick
acting citizen"? It truly is sad when, despite the police force
admitting to being ineffective and the prison service acting as a poor
deterrent, the act of defending one’s self and property is criminalised. I guess it is easier to catch law abiding
citizens when they report themselves to the police and wait at their homes
for arrest. This is not the South Africa the world dreamt of in 1992.
Beyond
reproach or beyond the law?
13-February-2008 - The
motivation behind yesterday’s decision by the ANC to disband the Scorpions
– South Africa’s special investigations unit – seems questionable. The ANC
claim there is a need to centralise criminal investigations
under a new government backed unit, while it would seem to most that it was
the Scorpion’s independence and focus that accounted for so much of their
success. I suspect the real motivation here has less to do with improving
the efficiency of policing and more to do with the ongoing investigations
into the affairs of senior ANC officials and the upcoming trial of their
leader Mr. Jacob Zuma. For Mr. Zuma the decision comes at a crucial moment, the
deadline for dissolution being set for June 2008 or just 2 months before
his upcoming racketeering trial. Why in a country where serious crime and
corruption is on the increase is the potency of the police force to deal
with crime at the highest level being eroded? Perhaps we have identified
the glass ceiling above which the law has little reach. I sincerely hope
not.
Comment on
South African Infrastructure
3-February-2008 - It
seems electricity generation is not the only capital investment put on the
back burner in South Africa today. On a recent trip around the country it
wasn’t the rolling black outs or “load shedding” that surprised me but the
conditions of South Africa’s roads! I guess the deterioration is most
apparent when one has been away from South Africa for a while, but the
country’s once world-class road system is starting to look frighteningly
like those of less-developed and often war-torn countries elsewhere in
Africa. What has happened? Helen Zille’s “Guns
vs. Butter: what the electricity crisis reveals about government’s
priorities” read it…. could not be more on the mark. What was the
government thinking when they committed R30Bn to an arms deal when it was
struggling to house and feed its people, and now maintain basic
infrastructure? Speculation of massive kick backs and rife
corruption abound, but I prefer to believe this was an error in judgment
rather than a deliberate offence. Unfortunately, infrastructure costs more
to rebuild than it does to maintain. If the government allows one of the
country’s greatest assets – assets that every South African enjoys and has
already paid for with generations of tax receipts – to deteriorate, the
government will not only be guilty of failing to drive South Africa forward
but also in not allowing it to keep its head above water.
More…
© 2008
Progressive Initiative. The
Progressive Initiative rejects all forms of discrimination, embraces
democracy and encourages transparent politics. The views expressed in this
site are those of its members.