Chloe Maluleke (The Mercury, November 21) must be commended for placing media acclaim concerning South Africa’s hosting of the G20 summit within the context of the realities prevailing in the country.
As she points out, there is a huge disconnect between the rhetoric of the G20 and the circumstances which confront the majority of South Africans on a daily basis. Touting equality, solidarity and sustainability as the aims of the G20 are concepts that simply don’t exist in South Africa. The insistence of the ANC in promoting the failed policy of BEE has widened inequality, particularly amongst black people.
True to form, socialist ideology has exacerbated division and discontent, thereby producing a very negative solidarity. As the numbers dependent on social grants increase and ever new ways of increasing taxes are sought, while new billions in indebtedness are incurred for the unscientific, false pursuit of the green deal, the prospects of financial sustainability are zero.
Trying to put a positive spin on the state of agriculture, Minister John Steenhuisen cites an increase of 10% in agricultural exports. But beneath the veneer of his words, his confidence in food security is difficult to appreciate. More than 8,000 farms are up for sale, many are idle or vacant, and stock theft and farm murders persist. When a farmer is murdered, the farm dies with him, and another source of nutrition is lost.
If the government were “serious about the economy,” as Steenhuisen enthuses, then it would scrap BEE and cadre deployment and focus on job creation for the unemployed instead of job preservation for the employed as demanded by Cosatu.
The most overlooked word among those who wax lyrically about the G20 declarations is ‘sustainability.’ As Chloe Maluleke notes disconsolately, sustainability is not evident in basic services, the functioning of infrastructure, the combating of crime, the implementation of justice, institutional integrity and the quality of education. The fabric of society is not sustainable given the pandemic levels of GBV, drug and alcohol abuse, addiction to gambling and lawlessness.
When John Steenhuisen served on the eThekwini Council, he was acutely perceptive of and proactive in dealing with dysfunctionalism and deterioration. Thus, his declaration in the wake of the G20 summit that the country has “put its front foot forward” and “is on the up,” raises the question as to which country he has in mind because it’s not the one most of us experience daily.
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