ANC, now is the time for action, not visions

In the world of politics, you are either revered or hated. There is no room for ambiguity.

In their book Palme A life in images, authors Henrik Berggren and Jacob Forsell, describe Swedish former prime minister Olof Palme – assassinated on 28 February, 1986 – as one of Sweden’s most influential politicians of the 20th century.

“Many adored him, others detested him – but no one was indifferent,” say the authors.

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After a period in opposition, Palme made a triumphant return in 1982, but, according to the authors, “he was well aware that, by then, the country he was to lead had changed a great deal”.

A Swedish politician who twice served as Sweden prime minister, Ingvar Carlsson, says of Palme: “Olof Palme had a powerful effect on those he met.

“Many were fascinated, gripped both by his aims and his personality. Others found him provocative. In my experience, people were rarely indifferent to Palme.”

Palme was in the forefront when the Swedish welfare state came into being and had to be defended against critics.

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During the Margaret Thatcher-Ronald Reagan era of constructive engagement with apartheid South Africa, it was Palme who stood in support of the liberation movement – a friend of Oliver Tambo and the then-banned ANC in exile.

Taking a stand and siding with “terrorists” when it was not fashionable to do so, was the kind of politician Palme was. In current South Africa politics, it has become a norm for government to come up with progressive policies, convincing speeches and plans, with implementation translating to zero.

Take President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan presented three years ago before parliament.

In collaboration with business and labour, the plan seeks to create jobs and reindustrialise the economy.

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With a sluggish economic growth, high unemployment, soaring crime and corruption, how much progress has been made by government, if labour and employment minister merely refers to “job opportunities” – not real jobs?

If he is serious about improving the capability, with needed skills largely available in the private sector, Ramaphosa, who has been behind a collaborative working relationship with business, should have been the first to reprimand his Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who has made wild claims about the private sector “engineering the collapse of government”.

So much for the treatment of a strategic partner – driven by a vision to turnaround a struggling economy, particularly embattled stateowned enterprises like Transnet and Eskom.

The importance of policy certainty in attracting potential investors cannot be over-emphasised. The proposed transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, has become another area of contention.

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While Ramaphosa has endorsed a transition from fossil fuels to green energy, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has been correctly cautious. The transition requires a process – while we maintain an energy mix of solar, hydro, wind and coal.

Mantashe has maintained that mining minerals like coal are “important to move from high to low carbon emissions”.

“What we cannot afford to lose sight of in this just energy transition discourse, is the fact that Africa is the least polluter, compared to the developed continents,”

Mantashe argued. He has found mining of minerals like vanadium and lithium, useful for battery storage – and platinum, to produce green hydrogen.

While we are never short of visionaries, what we need is implementation.