The Big Read: The hole in the heart of the ANC

Twenty-four years ago South Africa did not look like a country with a chance of success. War raged in the townships. The police were enemies of the people. The economy was a disaster. The races were divided.

But we came through. Tough negotiations were held. A peace deal was signed. Guns were lowered. An election was held. Archbishop Desmond Tutu declared us the "Rainbow Nation of God".

A truth and reconciliation process got under way. It was painful, harsh, unsatisfactory, flawed - but acceptable. It is being copied globally. In the latter part of the 1990s the economy was suckled back to life.

The world over, people said South Africa was a miracle. They asked: "How did they do it?"

So, what did we do right?

It is simple: we believed in ourselves. Our leaders identified the key issues facing South Africa, and they believed we could solve these problems by following the reconciliatory path we chose. Ordinary South Africans believed we could solve these problems and so they supported leaders who stuck to this winning formula. There were many naysayers, but our leaders believed in this path and followed it without prevarication. That inspired the country. Self-belief is an important part of leadership.

I was reminded of this when I read the Centre for Development and Enterprise's important new research document, "The Democratic Alternative from the South: India, Brazil and South Africa". It is a study of the three countries and it clearly shows that democracy has worked for all of them.

This is good. What is to be done, however, about our floundering present and uncertain future?

In the document, the centre's executive director, Ann Bernstein, quotes Indian public intellectual Gurcharan Das, who points out one of the key problems facing India - and I dare say South Africa - today. Das says: "India reforms furtively because no political party has bothered to explain the difference between being pro-market and probusiness, leaving people with the impression that liberal reforms help mostly the rich. They don't understand that a pro-market economy fosters competition, which helps keep prices low, raises the quality of products and leads to a rules-based capitalism that serves everyone."

This is the key problem facing us today. Our political leaders have lost belief in themselves and their ideas. They do not stop to explain to voters why we were on the road to economic success in the 2000s, with jobs being created and our economy growing: it was largely because of the much-derided macroeconomic Gear policy.

Our leaders do not want to stick their necks out and back the policies that they know can create the growth and prosperity we need.

Instead, faced with a Julius Malema, who wants to nationalise the mines and expropriate land without compensation, the Jacob Zuma-led ANC is unable to stand up for itself. It flirts with discredited socialist rhetoric, then flirts with market-friendly ideas, and then flip-flops to radicalism again. Its leaders have lost their belief in themselves and in their ideas. They believe in nothing, stand for nothing and are not prepared to fight for anything.

What are the key structural reforms needed to end South Africa's current malaise? Education and skills training must be a priority. We are on the road to nowhere if we continue to kowtow to the SA Democratic Teachers' Union on crucial issues such as teacher discipline and the monitoring of educators.

This is an issue that needs leadership. It needs our entire government to show that it believes that quality education is absolutely a non-negotiable. Then we will have a fighting chance of solving our joblessness problem.

Instead, we have seen President Jacob Zuma promising, in December 2012, that he would introduce school inspectors and other tough measures. Nothing has happened. He has lost his belief in what is right.

Leaders absolutely have to believe in themselves and take their constituencies along with them. One of the fallacies of our time is that the ANC, for example, is wrong on all fronts. That is delusional. The ANC is fantastic on most policies. However, it is led today by men and women who have lost their belief in democracy and their own market-friendly ideas.

Suresh Kana, senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Africa, wrote earlier this year about this vision and sense of self-belief. Our leaders would do well to put his words up on their walls: "As South Africans, we need a unity of purpose and a common vision once more. If we can recapture the enormous goodwill and openness to change we had 20 years ago, we can put the educational tools in place to ensure responsible governance within the next 20."

It is not just good governance that we would reap. Jobs, prosperity and progress would once again be part of what we are. But leadership and self-belief are essential.