Political ‘crooks’ outnumber good leaders, pushing SA toward failed state status

South Africa has been going through tough times and while many believe the country is merely struggling in the area of governance, there are some who believe the country is on the verge of collapse.

While this isn’t the first time SA has been cited as a state heading towards collapse, the recent natural disaster in KwaZulu-Natal, violent protests and antimigrant marches have fuelled the debate once more.

Also Read: KZN disaster proves the ANC is a worse plague than floods, fires or locusts

According to economist Mike Schussler, the global and domestic crises resulting in increased food and fuel prices were sending SA backwards.

“Not all crises are an indication of SA collapsing, food prices are worldwide, petrol prices are also worldwide so I wouldn’t declare it as a collapsing society. But certainly we are in the process of going backwards,” he said.

The plight of state-owned enterprises, such as Eskom and those involved in railways, were a sign that SA was not moving forward, which, according to Schussler, proved strong government interventions in the form of law and order were needed.

“We need the justice system and the police system to work. We need them to lock up the right people and hold the right people accountable,” Schussler said.

“We need to be real about this because if we don’t fix those things, the increase in petrol and food prices will be felt much more because we already have a high electricity price increase.”

Also Read: KZN flooding: disaster exposes cracks created by corruption, mismanagement

Political analyst Dr Nicole Beardsworth said there were a lot of reasons for significant concern, especially because government has failed to act fast and decisively to turn things around.

“I don’t think we’re absolutely on the brink of collapse, things can still be turned around by making decisive actions – which we haven’t seen yet,” she said.

She also said that after 10 years of significant and sustained corruption, the weakening of enterprises and institutions was mainly why SA started 2020 in a weak position.

“And we have had rapidly increasing unemployment over the last decade. We haven’t managed to reduce the employment figures. And all that has been exacerbated by the domestic crises ,which include the global pandemic, the riots last year and now the state of disaster in KZN due to the flooding.”

Beardsworth said SA had been affected by both global and domestic crises, which was pushing the country towards failing state territory.

The government has argued that SA is not a failed state yet and it is rebuilding its capacity, but according to an activist initiative launched on 7 April as a national discussion document on democratic renewal, SA’s cracks are starting to show.

Business Leadership South Africa’s chief executive Busisiwe Mavuso said SA was faced with high inequality, unemployment, a high failure rate of small businesses and one of the worst education systems in the world, which was a sign it was on the brink of collapse.

Also Read: Government killing its own golden goose: Taxing SA’s middle class into poverty

“We’re very clear from a business perspective that we need a democratic renewal, because the reality we face is that the big failure is that the politics no longer work,” Mavuso said.

“Unfortunately, this is the elephant in the room.

“There are just too many crooks within political spheres who have outnumbered the few good men and women who want to see real change.”

Mavuso said an environment in which elected leaders steal food parcels from the hungry and personal protective equipment from the dying proved SA had lost it.

Dr Olivia Kunguma, lecturer at the University of the Free State Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa, also said KZN floods exposed significant socioeconomic and environmental vulnerabilities.

“Investment in disaster risk reduction efforts is needed more than disaster response efforts,” Kunguma said.

“Although the occurrence of heavy rain was predicted in time, the damage it caused showed that this timely prediction was ineffectual.”

– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za