Onus is on us to halt descent into the abyss

Any person of moderate intelligence must realise South Africa is in decline and, if we don't do something about it, we could end up impoverished like our northerly neighbour, Zimbabwe.

Last week, I highlighted a disturbing article that appeared on the front page of the popular Wall Street Journal. This week we achieved further notoriety, featuring as the cover story in The Economist, which is respected as one of the most intelligent and knowledgeable periodicals on public affairs in the world.

The Economist refers to itself as a newspaper, but appears weekly in magazine format. Its origins date back to the 1840s, and today the publication boasts a circulation of 1.5 million that includes a wide array of business executives and policymakers.

The periodical has a history of truth and candour. In recent times, it has accused former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi of corruption and dishonesty, called for the impeachment of then US president Bill Clinton and promoted the election of Barack Obama in 2008.

This week, the newspaper targeted South Africa, acknowledging that Africa - once labelled "the hopeless continent" - is beginning to make bold strides, while South Africa is on the slide, both economically and politically.

Among other criticisms, it called the country's education system a disgrace. The author attributed the nation's descent to the ruling party's incompetence and outright corruption, and censured President Jacob Zuma for drifting, dithering and "offering neither vision nor firm government". The publication concluded that, unless the ANC's dominance is challenged, South Africa is doomed to go down as the rest of Africa goes up.

But the condemnation of the country's deficiencies has not been confined to the foreign media.

Recently, a number of prominent personalities joined the chorus voicing their concerns about South Africa's absent leadership. Former president Thabo Mbeki expressed doubts about the nation's future in a speech delivered at the University of Fort Hare, attacking those who joined the ANC with the intention of using their membership as a stepladder to access state power for self-enrichment.

Businessman and former JSE boss Russell Loubser, in a well-publicised speech at the University of the Witwatersrand, called the ANC Youth League a disgrace and embarrassment. BDFM publisher and columnist Peter Bruce wrote that South Africa was becoming the sort of place only investors with shiny suits will take seriously, continuing the litany of bad policy, poor judgment, rotten leadership and blatant corruption that Zuma has brought to the highest office in the land - all that was too long to list in his short column.

I have no doubt government top brass will stand their ground denying these brutal claims, issuing foolscap pages of inconsequential feats achieved during their years in power and, in some way, shifting the blame of their ineffectiveness to the legacies of apartheid.

But the time for political posturing and lame excuses has long expired. Further rating downgrades will relegate our credit to "junk", forcing international institutions to abandon our bonds, making it more difficult and more expensive to fund projects designed to lift growth, eradicate disease and eliminate poverty.

What's needed now is a frank analysis of where we are and how we can get ourselves out of this awful mess.

South Africans are some of the friendliest, warmest and most generous people in the world. Given proper guidance, they are hard-working, conscientious and eager to learn. They deserve more than they're getting at present.

It's clear the ANC, especially its current flag bearers, has not come close to fulfilling the promises to its support base of a more prosperous life for all.

Its policies of transformation have benefited only a handful of elites - the majority of whom are former political bigwigs. Its education standards have failed to keep pace with the demands of a modern information-based economy, thereby disqualifying our youth from competing in the global market place for jobs. It has allowed state hospitals to decay to such an extent that the majority of citizens are denied even primary healthcare. And, finally, the governing party has placed persons in positions of authority that those people are neither experienced nor skilled to fill, resulting in logjams in a number of critical government and municipal departments.

Getting South Africa back on track is no big deal. It requires nothing more than faithfully embracing the values we adopted so enthusiastically in 1994, when we approved a constitution designed to build a united and democratic country able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.

The constitution called on us to understand the injustices of the past, but also to recognise those who worked hard to build and develop the country. It prohibited, among others, discrimination on grounds of race and ensured every citizen's right to education, housing, food, water, healthcare, social assistance and legal protection.

South Africa has a wealth of resources - the energy and will of the majority of people to accomplish those undertakings. But what isn't in place, as The Economist pointed out so articulately this week, is the right leadership.

It's up to us to change that.