by LUKE MONTGOMERY ZUNGA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – FOLLOWING the previous article on election postures, South Africa Election Mania through Posters, the streets of South Africa continue to gain more attention.
The best postures, for me, were those of the African National Congress (ANC), the elegant President Cyril Ramaphosa and African Transformation Movement (ATM), the shiny youth of Vuyo Zungula.
The most daring is the Patriotic Alliance (PA), Gayton McKenzie and Kenny Kunene, the two ex-criminals plying their trade in politics.
Noone is pulling down posters for opposing parties as happens in other countries in Africa. It shows South African democracy is thriving, and is on the right path.
The plethora of political parties, however, reflects a growing unease, complaints and unresolved issues.
These party leaders think they can resolve the problems of South Africa. Yet none of them have spelt out how to resolve the fundamental issues of crime, poverty, unemployment, inequality and slow growth.
As a research unit, we spelt out what the pathway to resolve these issues, which are pertinent across the continent.
What is the underlying cause which keeps crime high when the jails are overflowing, the prosecution over stretched, this I-don’t-care attitude.
It is frustration from exclusion, no one is listening, an angry slur, voetsek! It is a deep social problem which police cannot solve.
The starting diagnosis is that the number of formal businesses should reach 5% of the population. South Africa had 780,000 formal businesses in 2018 which is 1.6% at best, far too few to employ all.
The shortfall is 3.4% or 2.1 million formal businesses, and this is the reason for 42% unemployment.
At least the country must be aiming to create one million formal businesses in the short term. Foreign investors will not create that number. It has to be the black people, and it costs only US$10 million to kick start massive industrialization.
Despite going to the government with the solution for over ten years, they closed their eyes and ears, while waiting for aeroplanes to bring foreign investors.
It will never happen. You cannot industrialize by waiting for someone to do it for you. Unfortunately, countries are run by technocrats and bureaucrats.
To push the debate further we decided to take the matter to court and to publish the research book this year.
Maybe somebody will wake up, not only in South Africa, but in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, everywhere.
NB: Luke Montgomery Zunga is a researcher and economist with South African Development Foundation.
– CAJ News