A Powerfull Letter to the south African Government
Dear Government
12th October, 2010
Dear Government
OK, I get it, the President isn't the only one in charge. The ANC
believes in "collective responsibility" (So that nobody has to get
blamed when things get screwed up), so I address this to everyone in government
- the whole lot of you - good, bad and ugly (That's you, Blade).
We were all so pleased
with your renewed promises to deliver services (we'll forgive the fact that in
some places people are worse off than in 1994); to root out corruption (so far
your record is worse than under Mbeki, Mandela or the Apartheid regime - what
with family members becoming overnight millionaires); and build infrastructure
(State tenders going disgustingly awry and pretty stadia standing empty
notwithstanding) - and with the good job you did when FIFA were telling you
what to do for a few months this year. Give yourselves half a pat on the back.
Since President Sepp went off with his billions I'm afraid we have less to be
proud of - Public Servants Strikes, more Presidential bastard children,
increasing unemployment and a lack of leadership that allowed the Unions to
make the elected government it's bitch. You should be more than a little
worried - but you're not. Hence my letter. Here are some things that might have
passed you by:
1. You have to stop corruption. Don't stop it because rich people moan
about it and because it makes poor people feel that you are self-enriching
parasites of state resources, but because it is a disease that will kill us
all. It's simple - there is only so much money left to be plundered. When that
money runs out, the plunderers will raise taxes, chase and drain all the
remaining cash out of the country and be left with nothing but the rotting
remains of what could have been the greatest success story of post-colonial
Africa. It's called corruption because it decomposes the fabric of society.
When someone is found guilty of corruption, don't go near them - it's catchy.
Making yourself rich at the country's expense is what colonialists do.
2. Stop complaining about the media. You're only complaining about them
because they show you up for how little you really do or care. If you were
trying really hard, and you didn't drive the most expensive car in the land, or
have a nephew who suddenly went from modesty to ostentatious opulence, we'd
have only positive things to report. Think of Jay Naidoo, Geraldine
Fraser-Moleketi and Zwelinzima Vavi - they come under a lot of fire, but it's
never embarrassing - always about their ideas, their positions, and is
perfectly acceptable criticism for people in power to put up with. When the
media go after Blade Nzimande, Siphiwe Nyanda and the President, they say we
need a new piece of legislation to "make the media responsible".
That's because they're being humiliated by the facts we uncover about them
daily, not because there is an agenda in some newsroom. If there had been a
free press during the reigns of Henry VIII, Idi Amin or Hitler, their regimes
might just have been kept a little less destructive, and certainly would have
been less brazen and unchecked.
3. Education is a disaster. We're the least literate and numerate country
in Africa. Zimbabwe produces better school results and turns out smarter kids
than we do. Our youth aren't unemployed, they're unemployable.
Outcomes-based-education, Teachers' Unions and an attitude of mediocrity that
discourages excellence have reduced us to a laughing stock. Our learners can't
spell, read, add or subtract. What are all these people going to do? Become
President? There's only one job like that. We need clever people, not average
or stupid ones. the failure of the Education Department happened under your
watch. Someone who writes Matric now hadn't even started school under the
Apartheid regime, so you cannot blame anyone but yourselves for this colossal
cock-up. Fix it before three-quarters of our matrics end up begging on Oxford
Road. Reward schools and teachers who deliver great pass rates and clever
students into the system. Fire the teachers who march and neglect their
classrooms.
4. Give up on BEE. It isn't working. Free shares for new black
partnerships in old white companies has made everyone poorer except for Tokyo
Sexwale. Giving people control of existing business won't make more jobs
either. In fact, big companies aren't growing, they're reducing staff and
costs. The key is entrepreneurship. People with initiative, creative ideas and
small companies must be given tax breaks and assistance. Young black
professionals must be encouraged to start their own businesses rather than join
a big corporation's board as their token black shareholder or director.
Government must also stop thinking that state employment is a way to decrease
unemployment - it isn't - it's a tax burden. India and China are churning out
new, brilliant, qualified people at a rate that makes us look like losers.
South Africa has a proud history of innovation, pioneering and genius. This is
the only way we can advance our society and economy beyond merely coping.
5. Stop squabbling over power. Offices are not there for you to occupy
(or be deployed to) and aggrandize yourself. Offices in government are there to
provide a service. If you think outrageous salaries, big German cars,
first-class travel and state housing are the reasons to aspire to leadership,
you're in the wrong business - you should be working for a dysfunctional,
tumbledown parastatal (or Glenn Agliotti). We don't care who the Chairperson of
the National Council of Provinces is if we don't have running water,
electricity, schools and clean streets. You work for us. Do your job, don't imagine
you ARE your job.
6. Stop renaming things. Build new things to name. If I live in a street
down which the sewage runs, I don't care if it's called Hans Strijdom or
Malibongwe. Calling it something nice and new won't make it smell nice and new.
Re-branding is something Cell C do with Trevor Noah, not something you can
whitewash your lack of delivery with.
7. Don't think you'll be in power forever. People aren't as stupid as you
think we are. We know you sit around laughing about how much you get away with.
We'll take you down, either at the polls - or if it comes down to the wire - by
revolution (Yes, Julius, the real kind, not the one you imagine happened in
2008). Careless, wasteful and wanton government is a thing of the past. The
days of thin propaganda and idealized struggle are over. The people put you in
power - they will take you out of it. Africa is tired of tin-pot dictators,
one-party states and banana republics. We know who we are now, we care about
our future - and so should you.
G
28.10.2010. 06:26
This article hasn't been commented yet.
Articles in this Category
Featured Article
* = required field