Country’s decline demonstrates the slippery slope from Rama-phoria to Rama-problem
14 February 2022
The president of a country is remembered for what he accomplished during his term in office. In President Cyril Ramaphosa's case, South Africa's decline since 2018 demonstrates a slippery slope from Rama-phoria to Rama-problem.
This is exemplified by the empty promises and undertakings that he has been making since his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) in 2018.
In 2018, President Ramaphosa undertook to lead South Africa down a path of growth, job creation and transformation by means of an inclusive social compact.
It was supposed to revolve around job creation, particularly for the youth. Four years down the line, though, reality paints a very different picture. In his first year – long before Covid-19 – growth decreased from 1,1% to 0,8%. In 2019, it declined even further to 0,113%.
In 2018, the unemployment rate was 27,1%, and the expanded unemployment rate was 37%. The unemployment rate has since skyrocketed to the most recent level of 34,9%, while the expanded unemployment rate stands at 46,6%.
The President has now finally acknowledged that it is not the government that must create jobs, but the private sector. Everyone already knows that. Has the President only recently come to this realisation or is the fact subtly and conveniently being used to shift the blame for the high level of unemployment to the private sector?
In his recent SONA, the President promised to establish a task team to address the issue of needless bureaucratic red tape. But he undertook the very same thing in 2020 when he promised that people would soon be able to register companies at the push of a button.
The only ones who benefited from this were the companies that were registered overnight to loot the Covid-19 emergency fund in the name of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). Needless red tape can be eliminated to a large extent by simply ensuring that all the existing departments function as they should.
The President frequently uses the phrase "Local is Lekker" to emphasise the importance of local interests. But it is not implemented in practice. Cuban engineers, who are not even properly qualified to work locally, are shipped to South Africa while local engineers are unemployed.
The government donated R50 million to Cuba for food security, while 40% of all South Africans live under the breadline. Charity is supposed to start at home, in your own country.
The FF Plus will only believe that the government is serious about economic growth once it restricts the power of trade unions and abolishes BEE and Affirmative Action (AA).
In 2018, the President said that people of all races must participate in building up the country, but the government still discriminates based on race as is evident in recently proposed amendment bills that, among other things, target Afrikaans schools.
At present, legislation that will give provincial departmental heads the power to determine schools' language of instruction and enrolment requirements is being reviewed.
The Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, does not even want to recognise Afrikaans as an indigenous language.
In addition to the recent report on the unrest in July last year, which clearly points out the President and government's shortcomings, the President had received a report outlining the rampant disorder and corruption in the State Security Agency (SSA) in 2018 already. Nothing was done about it.
On the one hand, the President says that he wants to combat crime in South Africa, but in practice, the police's budget is increasingly cut back. It now only comprises a mere 5% of the total budget.
The only thing that will save South Africa is a change in government. Empty promises and hollow words will not achieve that.
Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus leader, 14 February 2022
