The theme of President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation speech was that South Africa is better than it was in 1994. Most people would agree that our country is indeed a better place than it was then.

What is not agreed is whether South Africa is worse than it could have been if the Zuma government and its predecessors had followed other policies. Far more importantly, will the country be better off or worse than it could be, if the ANC remains in power?

Sometimes one hears people saying that things were better in the old days. Even some black people say the same thing. Be assured that it is not so. Quite apart from human dignity questions flowing from our Bill of Rights, inter-racial respect and tolerance as well as the national pride we feel, there has been progress:

Our gold and foreign exchange reserves have increased from US$3 billion to US$50 billion;

Our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased from US$136 billion in 1994 to US$400 billion now;

We have 13.7 million registered as taxpayers; in 1994 there were 1.7 million;

We now have the largest social welfare net in the world, with 16 million receiving grants against only 2.4 million recipients in 1994;

Hundreds of thousands of young people are able to attend university whereas their parents could never even dream of that;

Early childhood development facilities have doubled in a decade, with 750,000 children enrolled in Grade R.

All of this is positive. Perhaps any government would have achieved all this and maybe more, but the ANC was in power and can fairly claim credit. But the ANC must then accept the blame for the things that are wrong.

While the matric pass rate increased from 60 per cent in 1994 to 73% now, the standard is abysmally low, especially in mathematics and science;

Fifteen million people are working but seven million are not, in the midst of a vast shortage of skilled workers because our education system is failing our young people;

Our health system is failing poor people in many areas;

Corruption is our number one growth industry; and

Crime levels remain unacceptably high.

Crucial to the future of our country would be the tackling of these problems and solving them. In the next few months every party will be able to campaign and try to get across their solutions. But will South Africans really listen?

Will voters look at the programmes of parties inside and outside parliament? Will they examine carefully what each party offers by way of solutions to our many problems? Or will the majority vote the way they always have - perhaps on racial grounds -- ignoring the facts, positive and negative, that characterise South Africa today?

In mature democracies power changes hands every so often. That has not happened in our country yet. It will do one day. The voters must not decide in 2014 whether South Africa is a better place than in 1994. That would be voting for a better yesterday. They must vote for the party they think will ensure a better future by solving problems not yet solved by the government.

Douglas Gibson is former Opposition chief whip and former ambassador to Thailand. He can be followed on Twitter here.

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