South Africa is growing into a truly great country & indeed a much better place to live in than under the past regime for a few! Reflections ahead of president Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation Address tomorrow

The question rages on and rightfully so: Do we have a good story to tell? Yes, the ANC and government most certainly advocate the notion that as a collective nation we have a good story to tell despite the challenges we face in the realms of job creation, economic growth and our current energy problems.

When the ANC adopted its campaign to spread the good word of what we achieved, we did so fully mindful of the short-term challenges we face. Some call us arrogant for ‘ignoring' these challenges but our argument has always been that the history of our country is far too complex to relegate our current national achievements to the dustbins on the basis of short-term popularism. Considering where we were in 1994... let alone 1984!

Many commentators point to surveys and protests as their conclusion that the electorate does not share our view of the great achievements over the past two decades. To be blunt one could say the protests itself is an achievement. Twenty years ago these men and women would be standing trial - charged with amongst others treason, terrorism and breaching the internal security act!

The counter argument must be that in 2014 the electorate thought carefully and felt a sense of comfort in our country led by president Jacob Zuma. And that we must all respect and protect. The ANC could be perceived as arrogant about its electoral victory, but we engage with all of the challenges we face - like in our courts, on the opinion pages and with NGO's.

Our appeal to the naysayers is: Let's have a debate of content and structure on this notion of a ‘frail' government. Let's put the rhetoric, hearsay evidence or the innuendo aside and let's debate notions with ideas, facts with facts and political discourse that raises the political subject in a mature manner as a nation.

Walkouts, wearing colourful attire (to capture the Kodak moment) and banging on the desks of parliament yield very little in the form of content and structure. As my standard 4 teacher always said: "Empty vessels make most noise."

The SONA 2015 offers our president the opportunity to once again present our nation's programme of action to deal with our challenges in detail and then more specifically shortly followed by allocations when Finance Minister Nene delivers his annual budget for 2015.

The SONA will review the past year - highlighting success, but importantly: Reflecting on areas of non-success. And here the questions must be: Why our milestones have not been achieved, its effect on that community and what urgent remedial steps the affected department/s in conjunction with the province and local authorities will do to unlock project implementation for the good and the local community?

The good stories of major achievements are in in abundance, only the naïve and politically obtrusive will deny the ANC achievements over the past 20 years. Many use the example that our courts and our criminal justice systems is a reflection of the wrong direction our country is taking. Again let's be factually correct:

- The ANC with its majority in parliament approved our constitution since 1994;

- Name an emerging or young democracy in the world today where all three elected presidents have been hauled before the High Court and respected its decisions - from Mandela to Zuma. Did the ANC change the rules to deny judges to right to criticize the president? No?

- When our president is at times insulted in public -booed or undignified gestures made - have we declared a state of emergency and arrested people in mass? No!

 - Our courts today are regarded by some as the most independent arm of the state as reflected in our founding constitution.

The list is endless. As the ANC government we have protected and defended the founding principles of our democracy at every given moment in our recent history. We cannot in all honesty reflect on the past year alone and say we have no good story to tell. This is what the opposition like the DA and some commentators want us to believe. We cannot allow short termism to find solace in our arguments why the ANC has no good story to tell. This is being intellectually dishonest. Headline grabbers will cite these obnoxious examples of poor leadership & governance:

- Nkandla - there is a process in parliament (as the only legal authority) to deal with the matter, yet the publicity around that plays to the gallery of EFF's tomfoolery. We will not achieve success if this is the decorum of debate. Allow parliament and the process to run its course.

- On the ridiculous note - for some if we lose the world cup in rugby or crickets - it suddenly becomes a reflection on the nation and its leaders of poor performers and chocker's.

The bugbear today is no doubt our challenge of Eskom - in both the business environment and domestic use for the ordinary citizens. The issue of power blackouts is not unique to SA only. From India to the UK, energy provision and power generation crisis's are on the table. Only the scales are different.

We must urge government to find both short and long term solutions. The opposition cries out for privatization as the panacea to our crises... Yes, the private sector has a role to play. But, it can't solve the bigger long-term solution. Energy specialists will say planning for energy is for 5 to 10 years. We can berate all we want, but solution we must find together.

It is also a stated fact that as ANC government we have brought to more people electricity in two decades than the then apartheid government did for more than a century!

So, we can all adopt a very short memory, say we have achieved nothing and there is no good story to tell about our nation since 27 April 1994. And we can inculcate this negative dogma into youth that before 1994 our country had no history. And this is dangerous.

Our good stories are experienced every day, despite our people's overwhelming challenges. Open up a Time or an Economists magazine and see why South Africa has the potential of being a truly great country. May our country grow in stature and our confidence to acknowledge where we come from and where we are right now?! South Africa is indeed a much better place to live in than under the past regime for the few...

Marius Fransman is ANC leader in the Western Cape.

This is an unedited version of an article that appeared in the Cape Argus

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