Let the Mother City light the way forward

Cape Town was a soothing sedative. Running along the rocky trails around Lion's Head inhaling the scent of the fynbos and looking down on the crystal-clear water in Bantry Bay made me conscious of nature's healing properties.

Strolling through the Company's Garden with my grandchildren, drinking a birthday toast to my daughter, Karen, at sunset on the white sands of The Grand Café in Granger Bay, lunching at Leopard's Leap in the heart of the winelands, watching Kaizer Chiefs play Wits at Cape Town Stadium, breakfasting on a Blackberry Smoothie at Nü and enjoying a hot pastrami on rye at Sea Point's trendy Kleinsky's was chicken soup for the soul.

Returning to Cape Town on holiday for the first time in five years, I realise why so many families are choosing to relocate from Gauteng to the Cape. It works. It's clean, friendly and pretty. And after only one week back home in Johannesburg I was ready to throw away my suits, grow my hair and seek sanctuary on the Atlantic coastline where I could anaesthetise myself from the world's tribulations.

During my two-week stay in the Cape, a power surge had knocked out my garage doors, internet, DSTV, alarm system, fridge, and a host of other electrical appliances. No one can proffer a reason why the surge occurred - it wasn't lightning; we're in the midst of a heatwave - but neighbourhood chatter is that vandals had broken into a local sub-station and attempted to steal the copper cables.

Finding workmen in the first week of January was a major challenge but that turned out to be the least of my New Year worries.

Global markets experienced their worst calendar opening in decades, sparked by a crash in the Chinese equity market. Attempts by Chinese authorities to seek a new growth model have raised concerns that the world's second-largest economy is weaker than forecast. Economies delicately linked to China's fortunes, such as South Africa, were particularly hard hit. Commodity prices eased further, equity prices plummeted, bond yields spiked and the rand hit new lows against the dollar, a move aggravated by surprisingly strong job growth data in the US.

All of this points to tougher times ahead for the local economy. The rand's collapse will push inflation through the roof and trigger further interest rate increases, while low base metal prices and our worst drought in decades will reduce tax receipts and keep a lid on expansion.

Reading through a pile of outlook reports for 2016, it's clear that international analysts view South Africa as a flawed economy that has little to offer investors other than a giggling president and a list of lame excuses for our feeble condition. We can raise our hands in protest and vilify everyone from Jan van Riebeeck to Janet Yellen, but, quite frankly, they don't give a damn.

They're leaving it to us to lift ourselves out of the mess we've created largely through corruption in the highest places, incompetence in key administrative positions and unconcern for the plight of the public. Not all is lost, though. Cape Town has demonstrated that with the right people at the top we can maintain South Africa's magnificence. But instead of running there as a refugee, we should simply follow their lead.