2010 is here and it is going to be a fantastic year for South Africa. We will host a very successful World Cup and we will believe that we are a winning nation that is taking its rightful place on the world stage.
Zuma’s used his New Year’s message to call on the nation to communicate only “positive messages“. His words were: “The year 2010 must be the year in which for the first time, we all communicate positive messages about our country to the world – the successes and possibilities. We have to put the culture of negativity behind us.”
Nice. But unfortunately, we have problems, very serious ones that must be aired. I’m sure the world – that part of it which we admire at any rate – would rather see a country where criticism is encouraged and tolerated than one which bursts at the seams with false admiration for itself.
Don’t kid yourself. The World Cup hype masks some serious problems in our politics, in our economy and in our social life. Once the World Cup is over what will this nation do to turn the marketing bonanza into something real that changes the lives of those struggling to survive?
Politically we are in a bad place. President Jacob Zuma has not proved an outright disaster and that’s a relief. But what kind of presidency is taking shape? The signs are ominous.
Zuma is rewarding his cronies, such as Mo Shaik – the man who made the disgraceful claim that Bulelani Ngucka was an Apartheid spy – with positions in government. He believes that Julius Malema is a future leader of the ANC. He visited Equatorial Guinea in one of his first official trips abroad. Zuma is forming an alliance with religious organisations that want to roll back aspects of the constitution. He has appointed Menzi Simelane, a man who openly believes prosecutions ought to be directed by politicians, as the head of the National Prosecuting Authority. The only possible reason for this is that Zuma wants – either directly or by proxy – to head off the prosecution of his political cronies.
All of these are not good portents. They suggest that there is no prospect that the decline of the state into a vehicle for the enrichment of the political elite will be arrested. Nowhere is this more apparent than when it comes to making policy. The focus ought to be on making South Africa a globally competitive investment destination with the sorts of policies that will build our industrial capacity and press home our dimming strategic advantages. Instead we are doomed to have no policy or a policy that is expressed in a myriad of hues to appease constituencies that the elite derives its power from without signifying anything.
It is fair to say that the economic policy “debate” has hit an all-time low. We are expected to enthusiastically discuss whether or not we should be nationalising the mines. We are, frankly, the laughing stock of the world as we pretend to ourselves that state-driven social engineering is still a serious option.
There must be more to life than choosing between the naked populism of Julius Malema and the quaint statism of the SACP‘s Jeremy Cronin.
While this goes on our best hope for leadership out of the morass – Trevor Manuel – has been turned into a producer of green papers which he is forced to defend at every turn without any assistance from what is referred to as “the leadership”.
Hope that the anachronistic statist industrial policy driven by Alec Erwin will be replaced by an acknowledgement that we are now in the 21st century has faded.
Meanwhile the gap between rich and poor grows and the middle classes find themselves squeezed for every penny as the cost of replacing the state’s failing education, health and offering and its failing security services with private alternatives outstrips growth in salaries.
Yes, let’s celebrate the World Cup, let’s welcome our guests and show them a good time, let’s have a big football party.
But let’s not forget that we are way behind the global eight-ball.

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