One metric makes SA manageable
SA’s politics-meets-economics dialogue is too distorted by unrealistic social justice notions to identify appropriate goals, policies, and progress metrics. The new ANC president must assertively chart a course and determine how best to gauge success.
Due to the country’s social justice debates being stoked and exploited, SA’s politics and economics don’t align, rather they collide. Ramaphosa can solve this by focusing policies around SA’s single most critical economic metric: the rate of poverty alleviation. All South Africans would benefit.
Idealised concepts of fairness appeared to suit the ANC as its brand is built on its social justice credentials. Yet, those credentials were established through constitutionally enshrining universal political representation. Conversely, since SA’s profound political transition took hold, global poverty has plummeted to the point that SA’s prevalence of extreme poverty is now entrenched at over five time the global average.
Policies matter. All countries must somehow accommodate populist political pressures without allowing them to undermine competitiveness and growth. That SA is so ineffective at this reflects how its history, isolation, and politics all breed divisive. Agreeing a common goal provokes cooperation.
It is profoundly imprudent that SA imports inequality arguments from countries with minimal poverty. Public health officials are not distracted by some people living to 100 when children are perishing from an epidemic. Only through transcending mental blockages around social justice issues, can SA’s economic challenges become manageable.