Many readers of The Star were surprised to read a long list of his policy “failures” mentioned by people in his own party as well as by Zuma supporters.
The list, eleven items long, contained many madcap ideas, doomed to failure and straight out of the socialist playbook followed so passionately by ANC friends, few if any of which countries can be seen as successes.
The ANC passes resolutions at its conferences and to the amazement of many, then expects the government to carry out these resolutions. People fail to realise that many of these resolutions are passed in order to keep the troops quiet, hoping that by the next jamboree attention will have wandered elsewhere. It is only Carl Niehaus and his fans who believe that the government can or will put many of these resolutions into action.
Additionally, many delegates are not seriously engaged with economics and finance.They are there to support one or other leadership or aspirant leadership faction, all expenses paid, not to use their brains.
One of the “failures” is no free tertiary education. Does anyone seriously believe that the current system with generous funding for all those who simply cannot pay, is unfair? Why should well-off students be subsidised and who will pay for it? And should every young person, irrespective of merit or means, go to university and live at public expense?
What about a state bank? Taxpayers would have to fund it and one has a sinking feeling that it would go insolvent in double-quick time because it would be open to ANC cadre looting, irresponsible lending, and ignoring ordinary banking regulations and standards.
And National Health Insurance? It would be wonderful if our country, at its stage of development could afford NHI. But it can’t. The ANC has messed up formerly excellent hospitals and has an abysmal record in the health field. Instead of making needed improvements to our hospitals and clinics, that party will reduce all our hospitals, public and private, to the dark, damp, dirty, unhygienic and deprived condition that we see in many state hospitals after 28 years of misrule.
What about the “failure” to create a state mining company? Would the government find the billions to buy an existing company, or explore, develop and exploit the mineral wealth of a new mine? They are unable to run anything properly. Can you imagine how long it would take for the cadres to wreck an existing enterprise (think ESKOM or virtually any SOE) or to ruin a new one? All the miners would become civil servants, caring only about themselves and not about the unemployed or the interests of the country.
One could continue analysing every one of the so-called failures, but some attention should be paid to the real failures. Failure to strive for national unity and making everything about race, instead of seeing us all as equal citizens entitled to fair shake. Failure to junk outdated socialist policies that make us poorer everywhere. Failure to see that economic growth is the essential tool to the upliftment of all our people; is the way to fight poverty; is the only way to fight unemployment; is the way to provide the taxes that will enable us to fix our schools, our hospitals, our roads, our cities.
President Ramaphosa has been a failure, but not because of the failure to carry out foolish resolutions. He has failed because he does not move on the sensible reforms that could put South Africa onto an upward and successful path.
Douglas Gibson is a former opposition chief whip and a former ambassador to Thailand.
This article first appeared in The Star newspaper.
