Pragmatism has never been the ANC’s strong point

A willingness to cut off their noses to spite their faces is one of the perverse outcomes of a highly ideological government – as in Russia’s reckless act of self-harm in invading Ukraine.

And as in the ANC’s stubborn persistence with antiquated policies that have not only failed everywhere they were tried, but are failing before our very eyes in real-time. SA has been for almost two decades a fascinating and unfolding experiment.

Politically, it puts to the test how best to govern. Socially and economically, it signals how to adapt policy to deliver the greatest benefit to the greatest number through sustainable growth.

This unique experiment came about fortuitously, with the DA gaining complete control of Cape Town in 2006 and of the Western Cape in 2009.

The results are eye-popping in their implications, if only voters would heed them.

On the one hand, there was the Western Cape approach, based loosely on the liberal, social-democratic models of Europe.

It started with the handicap of being constrained by overarching national legislation and policies based on diametrically different values.

On the other hand, that of a government united with its eight provincial satellites.

ALSO READ: SA has worst unemployment rate among world’s economic data-tracking countries

Its approach would be based on the tripartite alliance’s manifesto, with the immediate objective of building a “developmental state”, à la China.

The experiment has proved humiliating for the ANC.

This week’s release by Stats SA of 2021’s fourth-quarter employment figures is a case in point. SA’s official unemployment rate, year-on-year (y-o-y), is up 2.8% to sit at 35.3%.

But by the expanded definition, which includes discouraged work-seekers, it sits at 46.2% – up 3.6% y-o-y.

It’s when one drills down into the provinces that the failure of the ANC provinces becomes evident.

At the official unemployment rate, the Western Cape comes in at 28%, which is 5.5% higher than it was a year ago. Only Limpopo (6.6%) and Mpumalanga (6.7%) took bigger hits.

Nevertheless, only the Northern Cape (25%) outperforms the Western Cape.

At the expanded unemployment rate – a statistically less flattering but arguably more accurate measure of economic dislocation – the difference between DA control and ANC control becomes particularly stark.

By this measure, the Western Cape unemployment edges up only slightly higher to 30.4%.

Now, not a single ANC province comes close and the Northern Cape trails in at a realistic 50.1%. The Eastern Cape, is the worst performer at 53.2%.

Testimony to the dead hand of ANC governance is Gauteng. Despite being South Africa’s economic powerhouse, it is a dismal second best to the Western Cape at 44.4%.

To state all these numbers differently, for every 60 people who cannot get a job in the Western Cape, there are 90 in Gauteng.

Employment is admittedly only one of an array of metrics that one can use to assess the results of South Africa’s inadvertent political experiment, but it is the one that the ANC has always chosen as the first measure of success.

Remember the catchline on the posters in the first three general elections?

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

Pragmatism has never been the ANC’s strong point.