The fate of the nation

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Large-scale failure threatens SA. It is time to act, argues John Kane-Berman.

JOHANNESBURG - Although many people are unwilling to read it, the writing is on the wall for South Africa. From the thuggishness of the police to moribund public schooling, from the endemic corruption of the ruling party to the chronic incompetence of the civil service, from assaults upon the Judiciary to official cowardice in the face of violent trade unions, from hazardous public hospitals to potholes in the roads, from failed land reform to declining life expectancy, from poisonous rivers to rampant crime and killer drivers, we are in trouble.

What makes all of this worse is the contempt with which the government routinely treats the public, even as it filches more money from our pockets. Ministers - even the president - jet in to communities in violent revolt and make promises they have no more intention or ability to fulfil this time round than last.

When a president with Jacob Zuma's track record wants to start a public conversation about morality, one can only conclude that he is either a complete and brazen cynic or-worse-that he does not understand that he has done anything wrong.

When the Gauteng premier can send the cops to block off half Johannesburg for half the day while she makes a speech, you know we have a mini Mrs Mugabe in the making. We are not a failed state, but that is where we are heading. (The comrades don't notice this because they are forever busy with parties, launches, summits, lekgotlas, conferences, grandiose occasions, overseas trips, etc.)

Even if South Africa can pull off a Soccer World Cup where tourists don't get mugged or raped to the extent that South Africans do, or where they don't disappear into potholes or down manholes, we all know that when the party is over the country will resume its downward slide.

Bits of the place spruced up for the benefit of World Cup visitors will be nothing better than Potemkin Villages. Fortunately, criticism of the ANC's deployment policy and of poor public service is growing, even within the three-ring circus sometimes known as the tripartite alliance.

Unfortunately, we know from the apartheid era how long it takes for failing policies to be reversed, even when the penny has dropped. But we also know from the apartheid era that change is not a function of government alone. The private sector, civil society, non-governmental organisations, and ordinary citizens can bring about change without waiting for the government. This is already happening in the labour field, where regulatory rigidities are being undermined by labour brokers and noncompliant clothing employers. Like apartheid, the ANC's ‘national democratic revolution' will eventually disintegrate.

*John Kane-Berman is the Editor-in-Chief of the SAIRR. This article first appeared in SAIRR'S Fast Facts