South Africa - Beyond Cure - South Africa is Terminally Ill

South Africa - Beyond Cure 

South Africa is Terminally Ill  

Stes de Necker

Some time ago I wrote an article on ‘South Africa’s Political Disease’ referring to the late Prof. Chris Barnard who said that the one thing he learned in medical science was that most diseases or ailments, will progressively degenerate until it reaches a certain point where curative treatment is no longer possible.

A certain "point of no return".

Once the degeneration has passed this limit, then all that remains is death of the patient or drastic intervention to operate and remove the affected body part.

For example, a hole in someone’s tooth can be filled, but once the rot became too much, then all that remains is to remove the tooth.

The current social situation in South Africa is certainly ideal comparable to Prof. Barnard's theory.

The question is: Can South Africa still be cured?

Never in the history of South Africa, has the socio-economic outlook for South Africa looked so grim. If this land was a human patient, it would have been admitted to an intensive care unit long ago!

After twenty one years of ANC rule, we are experiencing the worst economic conditions, unrest, murder, theft, corruption and civil disobedience this country has ever seen.

More worrying is the fact that political opportunists and radical elements like Julius Malema and the Youth League, effectively abuse the volatile political climate to promote their own socialist ideologies.

South Africa surprised the world in 1994 with its peaceful transition to a new political order and the relatively peaceful progress that has been made during the first years of democracy.  

It is unfortunate that the country's president, Jacob Zuma, and the ANC Government doesn’t seem to fathom the seriousness of the current socio-economic unrest and civil disobedience experienced in South Africa today. These are merely the symptoms of a much more serious underlying cause.

Patchwork, whenever trouble arises, will not solve the problem. On the contrary, it only give those radicals, who want to overthrow the existing order, more power in their quest for revolution. Forced economic adjustments, adjustments in the education system, economic adjustments in the interest rate and a host of other “patches” only aggravate the situation even more!

Drastic changes in government policy is needed to restore the situation. Drastic changes which are unfortunately impossible to introduce under current Government ideology. 

For example:

• To end demonstrations and riots with force when the nation's security is under threat;

• To restrict so-called freedom of speech when domestic security is threatened;

• To effectively eradicate corruption and self-enrichment;

• To get rid of inefficiency when service delivery doesn’t take place.   

Since 1994 this government could not manage to grow South Africa's economy by more than 3.5% pa. At this rate of growth there exist no possibility to solve the unemployment problem, which lies at the root of all other socio-economic disorders.

Distribution of income between rich and poor is much more un-evenly than in 1994, the country's food supply has drastically decreased, real inflation has soared and South Africa has one of the world's highest unemployment rates.

The rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer. Domestic debt has risen to levels never experienced before. Students owe universities as much as R4 bill. in outstanding tuition and residency fees.

No country in the world can survive so many deficiencies in its system!

Unfortunately, the South African government for too long has neglected to treat ailments in the system effectively. Since 1994 unpopular decisions were postponed, serious deficiencies were not addressed and painful corrections were not done.

The question is:

Can the situation in South Africa still be cured, or are we already past the point of no return?

I, for one, believe that we are already past that point. 

While South Africa faces an imminent political and economic meltdown the ANC Government continues dancing around the fire of political opportunism and denial of the reality.