The South African government is currently faced with many untold economic problems. The reason being it reacts to these challenges instead of tackling them head-on even before they become a problem.
Take for instance, the power crisis that is facing the country at the moment and has the potential to bring to its knees the already moribund economy. South Africa knew back in 2008 that the country did not have the right capacity to continue providing power to the country into the future without any glitches. But it did nothing until matters came to a head this year.
During his State of Nation Address (SONA), President Jacob Zuma admitted that the shortfalls were impinging on the country’s economic growth, which has been in the doldrums for a while now.
In his late reaction, Zuma said South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, would receive R23 billion ($1.9 billion) in addition to the R20 billion ($1.7 billion) injection it got from the minister of finance, Nhlanhla Nene, in October last year.
He said the government was overseeing plans to improve the regular servicing of power stations to improve the performance of the coal-fired fleet, which have been at the heart of the continued power cuts in a country facing continued blackouts. “The war room established by Cabinet in December is working diligently around the clock with Eskom, to stabilise the electricity supply system and contain the load shedding,” Zuma told the joint sitting of Parliament on Thursday evening.
“We urge all individuals, households, industries and government departments to save electricity in order to reduce the need for load shedding,” he said.
Another problem that the government prefers to push under the carpet instead of cutting it in the bud is that of growing inequality between South Africans.
The white minority population in South Africa is getting richer while the African populace, which is majority has a handful of very rich people and hordes of poor people. This becomes more evident when one looks and travels around the country.
As a banking correspondent for one of South Africa’s biggest business dailies in the years running up to April 2010, I often passed through the Cape Town International Airport when it was being extensively renovated and expanded for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Landing there in December last year, I could not believe my eyes when I saw the new central terminal building.
In place of a noisy, small and old terminal I traversed as a correspondent for more than a decade before 2010 FIFA World Cup, the building had now become glitzy. However, the ancient South Africa I had gotten used to, came back when I drove out of the airport and went past the shantytowns further down from the airport to the Cape Town CBD.
Splendid affluence and poverty that tugs at ones heart strings continue to subsist side by side in South Africa.
This is in spite of unrestrained buoyancy from ANC senior politicians, who continue to believe that they have a good story to tell about the country’s transformation.
My point is that the relatively new glimmer of Cape Town International is not a true reflection of what is happening throughout the country.
Twenty five years ago, all and sundry believed that things would be better for the rest of South Africa when the country celebrated 25 years of the release of the late and iconic Nelson Mandela from Victor Verster prison. But as I look around 25 years later I do not see any of this as few people have gotten rich since then and many have gotten poorer.
This could be fixed. The problem is that Zuma and his advisors are ill-equipped to do so.
Instead of fixing this problem now before it become a big thing they are looking the other way. They will come with strategies once this presents the country with major problems.
