Let's not pretend SA is a great country

04 November 2015 - 02:07 By David Shapiro

I have a great deal of admiration for the university students and the EFF for taking to the streets and voicing their standpoints, even though their petitions might be misguided and foolish. The demands presented by Julius Malema to JSE president Nicky Newton-King last week exposed the party's juvenile intellect and poor grasp of economics. And, then, although the students claimed victory, the concern is that their triumph might weaken tertiary education institutions. Still, both factions have had the mettle to openly challenge the government's dishonesty, incompetence and failure to come even close to delivering on its promises.The mid-term budget tabled by the finance minister a fortnight ago gives us plenty to worry about. Shrinking revenue, rising government wage bills and an increasing interest burden provide the Treasury with little wiggle room to invest in growing the economy.Increasing taxes is not the answer. With a third of the country's population surviving on social grants, extracting from the productive to give to the unproductive will only add more strain on an already fragile business community.The money is there. But it's being frittered away by an administration more enamoured with its privileges and benefits than its duties and responsibilities. And blaming our deteriorating economic circumstances solely on outside events is disingenuous. Signs of decay have been visible for years, masked, though, by China's ravenous appetite for commodities and foreign investors' infatuation with throwing money at developing countries, both of which are vanishing fast.Up to now business has been bashfully silent about our bleak outlook, yet, with its power, wealth and skills, it is one group that can alter our destiny. But rather than challenging the government's manifestly anti-business policies, leaders are migrating their operations to more fertile and hospitable territories, further endangering our prospects.With commodity prices sliding and the world economy weighed down by uncertainty, our economic future remains vulnerable. We cannot continue on the same desolate path. We have no choice but to carefully reflect on who we are and where we are going.Kidding ourselves that we are a great country is not a good way to start. The citizens of great countries don't steal their neighbour's electricity, drive thoughtlessly on the roads and rape helpless old women. Nor do their governments scandalously self-enrich themselves with taxpayers' money.Once we acknowledge what we've become we can start the healing process. Hopefully, it will be only up from there...

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