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Our rainbow nation is anything but a failed state

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Jabu Mabuza
Jabu Mabuza
Elizabeth Sejake/City Press

These words are from one South African to another – to those in business and to those ordinary citizens who are just like me.

As has often been the situation in our long history, the minute times become tough and uncomfortable, the doomsday prophets appear to predict that this signals the demise of the rainbow nation – not that anyone is blind and naive to the serious challenges we face as a young democracy.

The reasons the prophets use to justify how we are moving from where we find ourselves to becoming a failed state are in themselves flawed.

They point to the “known” knowns as key indicators that all is lost. These are the following: Twin budget deficits, negative credit rating outlooks, massive unemployment, energy supply constraints, a breakdown in ­collective bargaining, corrupt ­leadership, inefficiencies of the state, the rise of the left under the Economic Freedom ­Fighters (EFF), poor ­education ­outcomes, the gap between the haves and have-nots, the ­infiltration of politicians into state security agencies, attacks on freedom of expression, rampant crime and the lack of ­service delivery.

I could go on and on adding to the above list.

Agreed, there are serious issues that can’t be ignored, but they are part of normal societal issues. The problems ­mentioned affect every South African in some way or another, and often the poorest of the poor suffer the most.

There has to be a joint effort by every sector of society to tackle these challenges and work towards finding solutions.

But to suggest we will move from the challenges mentioned to becoming a failed state is a step too far.

I would suggest we are further from a failed state now than at any point in the new South Africa.

Failed states are born out of countries that have governments that are either one-party states with economic policies that are radically leftist, or those where freedom of expression, ­democracy and the unionisation of workers has not yet ­occurred.

The one caveat here would be societies split along religious lines that pit one citizen against the other in wars of extremism even after democracy has dawned.

One might argue that our government is, in effect, a one-party state based on the ANC’s large political majority – 62% is a large number.

But if anyone has been listening to ANC policy lately and not just focusing on the controversies of the president or the ­grandstanding of the EFF, you would have heard from Cabinet ministers, including Number 1, that the ANC is fully committed to the free market policy on managing the economy, as ­detailed in the National Development Plan.

If you add to the ANC’s political majority the voices of the DA and a few other parties with a similar view, you have more than 90% of our political landscape fully committed to the free market principle of economic policy.

In my opinion, the above is the trump card that points ­towards anything but a failed state.

Do we continue to underperform in terms of our potential? Is the ­political noise going to increase in the coming years as labour leaves the alliance to form a leftist labour political ­party? Are energy issues holding back growth and adding pressure to the deficits? The answer to all these questions is yes.

But until we have a government in power that believes the solution to our challenges are the nationalisation of key private sector assets and which abandons the internationally accepted norms of managing a modern democracy, we are not about to become a Venezuela or a Zimbabwe.

Our state of the nation can be compared with that of a ­teenager. It has emerged from infancy but, at times, behaves in a way that seems to make it impossible for it to become an ­effective and a responsible adult. At other times, we stand proud of the child we have raised.

The oscillation between positive and negative behaviours can be unnerving to any parent, but ultimately the child matures and, through the experience of life’s lessons, moves on to adulthood.

I am confident that South Africa will do the same.

Mabuza is a businessman and chairperson of Telkom

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