Sliding in the scales…drifting into insignificance!

In a previous blog post, I toyed around with a few ideas about the sorts of things I would do if I were president. I’m afraid things seem to have gone haywire since then. Partly as a result of the global economic winds buffeting emerging market economies. But partly our fault. Of course it’s a much easier job standing on the sidelines pointing out all that is wrong with the country and what needs to be done. Talk is cheap, they say. But for things to improve, they probably needed to get to this low level first. That way, a good many of us would get to appreciate the importance of having good leaders who put the interests of the country ahead of theirs.

But despite the gloom everywhere, I’m positive there are some things we can do to get this country on the right track. That way, the country would eventually become part of that much-vaunted trillion dollar club.

A bit of context to set the scene

What sparked my interest in this matter of the the state of the South African economy is a tweet I read about the top ten economies in the world according to Investopedia. I had my expectations of who the members of that club would be, but I must admit I was a bit taken aback when I looked through the list. The usual suspects are part of that club (The US, Japan, UK, France, Italy, and Germany). But so is Brazil, Russia, India, and mighty China (all part of the BRIC club of course).

So all the BRIC countries are part of that famed trillion-dollar league. It’s interesting to note that some countries not in the top ten are already part of the trillion-dollar league as well and will likely ease into the top ten soon. Among the shining stars are Mexico, Canada, Australia, South Korea, and Spain - which not that long ago had its own financial troubles in the Euro zone. It seems most of the troubles have gone away and Spain has got a firm handle on things. But that’s a story for another day. 

So back to the BRIC club, things are not looking all that rosy lately. And with the current foibles that the Brazilian economy is experiencing - and given the commodity price meltdown that bedevils both Brazil and Russia (whose foreign exchange earnings are primarily derived from exports of resources for the most part), one could argue that their membership of the trillion-dollar club - and the top ten economy league - may be threatened. Countries like South Korea and Mexico are slowly breathing down their necks. Mighty China is spared from this threat, but not so for the other members.

What of sunny South Africa?

South Africa’s one is a sad tale. Ours remains a story of a country with so much potential on paper but falling far short in the way of practical accomplishments. We like to think of ourselves as a special country. We still have a hangover from the Mandela era when we were a darling of the world. We basked in the glory of freedom and occupied all sorts of platforms that the world lavished on us. Our mining companies (Anglo, Kumba Iron Ore, Exxarro, Amplats - you name them) thrived during the resources boom, by virtue of being blessed with a bounty of resources that voracious China was stocking up to fuel its construction boom. But alas, such opportunities are windfalls and do not last forever. They ought not to be wasted.

Even at a personal level, South Africans see themselves in the big league. We like to hang out with the big guns. We compare ourselves to countries like Australia (our eternal rivals in sport – cricket, rugby for the most part –these being white-dominated sports of course); and lately we pride ourselves as being part of the BRICs club, though our membership of that club has been the subject of incessant questioning from the get go. Our membership of that league has been vilified by no less than the very person who coined the BRIC term (Jim O’Neill, then chief economist at Goldman Sachs, 2001).

But ambition should be made of sterner stuff!

In itself it’s not a terrible thing being ambitious. But Shakespeare did warn us that ambition ought to be made of much sterner stuff. It turns out we are not. Not while endlessly defending incompetence and covering up for our education ministers who struggle to pronounce words such as epitome. Not that one’s command of the English language should matter that much in the broader scheme of things, but one would think we need to make an extra effort given that English is our lingua franca. It’s the language we use everywhere. And with that being the case, what use is there in us continually celebrating mediocrity and being quick to pin the race label on whoever or whatever it is that pricks our sensitive egos? We pander to the lowest common denominator. This while the standards of achievement are continually improving everywhere in the world. We have ministers (of Higher Education nogal!) whose only claim to fame is to constantly spew out antiquated theories about so-called counter-revolutions and colonisation. This in an age of apps, unicorns and the new economy. How can we expect such people to lead us to prosperity and to get us to compete with established stars like Silicon Valley, and emerging heroes such as South Korea and Malaysia - where unicorns and savvy apps are the new game in town? We harp on about apartheid and the damage it has inflicted on us. Not that this is insignificant of course. But no less than Steve Biko did remind us more than a generation ago that if anything is to become of this country, it’s up to us. Black man, you’re on your own, he said. Our leaders seem to have missed the point entirely. Or as the young ones would say it these days, they just don’t get it!

It’s never too late to get in on the game!

In a world governed by technology and innovation, constantly looking backwards and relying on so-called bounties of natural resources is a backward move. These are certainly not winning traits in the 21^st century business environment. Unfortunately if we carry on with the sorts of leaders we have, we’ll continue to miss out. We missed the boat during the resources boom when China went about on a buying spree gobbling up resources from emerging economies primarily. We are certainly missing the boat on the technology front where start-up companies are dominating the world. Our metros and universities are just not jumping on this bandwagon of innovation quick enough.

All we hear about every day is inanities from our ministers of important sectors like education, whose claim to fame is being a communist in a world that has marched on and embraced transparency and openness. Today’s emerging stars are countries like South Korea and Malaysia, who have firmly embraced technology and are world-beaters. It’s completely absurd why anyone would place an important sector like education in the hands of a communist? Or economic development for that matter. It defies logic. We have set the standard so low and yet continue to act puzzled when we come low on pretty much every metric of performance that is used out there.

On the economy scale, we rank a paltry 33^rd on the size of our GDP. This despite the fact that not that long ago we were the 24^th biggest economy in the world and all indications were that we were gonna become part of the big league following the economic boom that accompanied the arrival of democracy on our shores. We have since regressed from an economy with a GDP of roughly half a billion USD (500 billion USD or somewhere about there) to a GDP of around 350 billion USD today. The forecasts for economic growth are paltry and our economy will continue to contract. All because our priorities are misplaced.

So quo vadis now for South Africa?

It’s the politics, stupid! We need to get competent people to run the country. We need to get competent people to be in charge of the economy. We need to get rid of dinosaurs who mouth off cold-war era policies and platitudes. They are taking us backwards. We need a breed of people who embrace innovation and technology to take charge and save us from this mess. We are past the point of political correctness. Spending valuable time defending incompetent ministers and presidents is a waste of our time. For god’s sake, this is the 21^st century where the true measure of success is in the global marketplace where ideas and innovation are the defining themes.

Why can’t we seek the advice of the likes of Elon Musk who is championing the electric car revolution and powerful batteries to assist us with our solar energy plans (instead of giving in to the dark side and cosying up to Russia on nuclear energy and an uncertain energy future?). Why are we harking back to nuclear energy when the rest of the world has embraced transparency and openness? It’s not as if we can afford to pay for the nuclear energy that our president is trumping up. Our economy is sliding and our debt spiralling out of hand. Even in light of successes from the world-renowned REIPPP (Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme) that the South African government has championed – with obvious and undeniable benefits for society in general – we continue to defy logic and go against the grail. We live in the best of times where information is the common currency everywhere. Yet we have secretive programmes being conjured up by notoriously corrupt politicians. We have it within our means to save this country from this mess and make it a shining example of openness and transparency. And we have it in our means to waste this opportunity and become another basket case. So what will it be for sunny South Africa? The answers will play out during the year. The country certainly deserves a much better deal than this.