GIVE US AN HONEST ASSESSMENT
In a week's time President Zuma will be delivering a State of the Nation (SoNA) address to the nation. We can predict that the President will give us the usual litany of policy prescriptions and good intentions. However, South Africa needs more than that at the moment. We need an ambitious vision for SA or a recommitment to the vision we currently have - Vision 2030 as encapsulated in the National Development Plan. But that will need an honest assessment by the President of where we are as a country and admission of where he might have fallen short of previous promises. President Barack Obama did it in his last State of the Union. Regretting the political divisions in the US that are holding back progress, he characterized them as a lasting disappointment of his tenure. He acknowledged that "a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide." It was this admission of his own failures that made him look great, placing his ambition within the context of his limitations and failures. The trick worked. I got a sense that his State of the Union address had context and was tinged with reality.
We need the same here at home. What is the state of the nation? Unemployment in our country remains exceedingly high, at about 25 percent, by global standards. The youth unemployment rate reportedly stood at 63, 1 percent in 2015. This against the President having promised in 2011 the creation of 5 million jobs over 10 years and with 500 000 annually. Clearly, the President has fallen far short of that goal. Yes, there are global economic factors that have contributed to this but government, and local business and labour, have also played a part. This must be acknowledged by all social partners, with the head of state leading in taking responsibility. Adding to high unemployment rate is corruption, poor services delivery and poverty that still confront us a country and President Zuma needs to give South Africans an honest assessment on these issues and a way forward.
On the economy as a whole, the outlook is not so great, economists tell us. Economic activity will likely remain subdued. Although these are issues normally dealt with by the Minister of Finance in his Budget speech, the captain of the ship will have to speak to these matters and outline a plan as to how we are going to get ourselves out of this economic quagmire. There has to be an attempt to make South Africans understand where we are economically, how we got here and what role each of us will need to play in order to turn things around. On labour issues, the relations between government and the unions have become somewhat toxic and that does not bode well for country stability. There was a time when such toxicity was confined to the unions and business but with the latest move by President Zuma signing into law the new pensions Bill, battle lines have been drawn. Pension is a worker's deferred income and I am not sure government can move ahead on this matter without the buy-in of the people to whom the income belongs. There are both moral and legal issues involved here. Unless the SoNA addresses this issue, SA may be heading towards a bumpy ride. Of course, there is also the issue of drought which is threatening, among others, farming and food production in the country. Many South Africans feel frightened and anxious about the drought - and rightly so. A drought will have a ripple effect such increased unemployment as farmers lay off workers due to less productive farms. As the drought affects the entire region, if food supply in the neighbouring countries experiences a shortage, it could result in migration into SA and add to our economic challenges. We need an indication from the President on his government's intervention attempts and on high level research, if any, being done by our science councils on how we can mitigate the impact of the drought.
Lastly, the President will have to deal with the racial rancour and suspicion with which we opened 2016. The SoNA will have to urge citizens to resist the temptation of falling back into racial profiling and tribes. At the same time, the President will have to candidly confront the issue of racism in the country. Those who want to scapegoat fellow citizens because the latter look differently, eat different food, dance differently and vote differently will have to be read the riot act that racism is not allowed in SA.
This SoNA comes at a time when we are beset with challenges as a country. Adding to these is the sense of despondency, hopelessness and discouragement I pick up when interacting with a number of fellow South Africans. But I am hopeful about our future as a nation. Hopeful because we have faced adversity in the past and overcome.
