Table of Contents
Other Socio – Economic Issues. 3
Breaking news – the current Government of South Africa – the African National Congress (ANC, which came to power in 1994 with Nelson Mandela as President and head of the first multi-ethnic government in South Africa.
The ANC did stay in power in 2016 and 2019 but with reducing shares of the vote.
The fact that Zuma, the previous head of the ANC is still standing trial for corruption allegations concerning an arms deal made more than twenty years ago – long before he became President – shows how long the legal process can last – particularly with resistance at the top of government.
Also, corruption allegations have continued to a swirled around his successor current President Ramaphosa – particularly regarding the way money was spent during the Covid emergency.
But things are changing.
The Zondo Report
The turning point may be, the recent publication of the third chapter of the ‘Zondo Report’ -named after the Acting Chief Justice, heading the Committee of Inquiry – often referred to as ‘the state capture inquiry ‘as its main purpose is to get the money back. Now having sat for four years and produced over 75,000pages of evidence with more to come.
That third chapter took one year and three hundred witnesses and referred to ‘an organised crime syndicate’ – racketeering’ and recommending early legal action. – and specifically asserted that, the current government is;
‘Institutionally Incompetent and corrupt ‘.
Mostly still focused on Zuma and his successor Ramaphosa and the Gupta brothers – Indian entrepreneurs- now ensconced in Dubai – with alleged money laundering offences of over $3,3 billion, involving a wide range of other senior Ministers – protected by those at the top
One result being that Zuma was jailed for 15 months in2022 for ‘contempt of court’ – he just didn’t turn up when ordered to attend the inquiry.
If that were not enough – the country’s economy has been falling apart since 1994 and the report offers evidence of incompetence as well as corruption being the main causes.
Current Economic Issues
- Apart from the global issues facing most countries – inflation. high Interest rates and lack of growth – S. Africa has some significant domestic issues:
- Unemployment – a minimum 25% of the population for most of the 90s but – – at the end of 2022 reached 32.7 – amongst the highest in the world. Even worse – the rate for under 34s is now touching 50%.
- Leading to widespread industrial action – which exacerbates other issues such as –
- A dependence on primary products (sometimes referred to as ‘extractive ‘products i.e. dug out of the ground or grown in the ground e.g. agriculture and mining – dependant on global pricing –
- Revenue from the mining sector has dropped by 9.35 in the last year – the biggest contributor being gold which has dropped by 25%.
- Perhaps the most pressing crisis – The state-owned electricity supplier , Eskom – is warning of a possible power grid failure and has embarked on a series of daily rolling blackouts – which it refers to as ‘load Shedding’ – shutting down power to selected areas at a times of high usage to avoid total shutdown.
Currently – 3rd June – they are at their level six of eight – which means a blackout in selected regions for six hours every day and it can get worse.
In fact, at the time of publication of this post – the power is now off for 10 hours per day.
This isn’j just an inconenience when traffic lights stop working – but also when the lights go off in operating theatres or respirators shut down as well as an increase in looting.
Eskom itself has been investigated by the State Capture Inquiry and is quotes as – a glaring example of state mismanagement, under-funding and cost overruns – it is dependent on coal for 80% of its output – and the two most modern power stations it has, have been beset by design flaws, increased costs and missed target dates.
A perfect example of the toxic mixture of incompetence and corruption as the Zondo report actually provided evidence of the involvement of what they called – ‘organised crime syndicates’ – where developement funds were siphoned off in return for large ‘commissions’ paid back to government officials.
Other Socio – Economic Issues
Tripped over some weird statistics in my research –
South Africa is now in the top five in the world for the number of divorces – as a percentage of the population and –
For the number of absent fathers.
No – I don’t know what it means – but it’s interesting, isn’t it?
The Time Imperative
A general Election is due in 2024.
No date has been set yet – primarily because the Independant Electoral Commission (IEC) is in the process of updating the voter registration process and cannot – at the moment –commit to a timetable.
Putin Welcome
The government also have decided to alienate major trading partners and aid providers i.e. the Wester world – by granting ‘diplomatic immunity’ to all delegates at the forthcoming BRICS (Brazil – Russia – India – China – South Africa) Conference, they are hosting in August.
They have made it clear that the offer includes Putin and they will not cooperate with the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.
Despite the fact that S Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statue which means they have an obligation to carry out the arrest warrent.
Putin has said that he will decide whether to attend – closer to the time.
How to lose friends – influence people -and
Lose the General Elections!