The ANC Conference - Mangaung

Malusi Gigaba, a member of the ANC NEC, made the proud announcement in an interview with SAfm, broadcast from Mangaung, that the Government has committed to the roll-out of a large infrastructure development program, explaining that practically no infrastructure development had been undertaken by the Government until 2004.

This confession, in any other democratic State, would have been coupled with a resignation of all senior members of the Government.  It is a clear admission that the ruling Party has failed abjectly in its responsibility.  It is, unfortunately, true.  Any observer of the economics of South Africa will have recognised that the collapse of the infrastructure that previously existed is a prime reason for the very high rate of unemployment presently existing.  Unfortunately, Mr Gigaba coupled that statement with another, that it is not necessary to have skills in place to enable the development of the infrastructure, claiming that the required skills can be developed as the projects proceed!  It is interesting to speculate how NASA would have put a man on the moon if it had chosen the route of developing the skills required as it went!  One wonders why the Government has actively pursued policies that have resulted in the exodus of so many of the skilled people in the economy.  It has always been clear that these people would have been in demand in the developing economy that all hoped would be the future.  It is sad that so many of these skilled people were not Whites, but also Blacks, Indians and Coloured professionals.  It would have been bad enough if the policies had driven only the White ‘colonists’ away, as seems to have been the policy of the ANC.

Mr Gigaba also explained that the rail network is being redeveloped, hopefully to bring it back to the state that it was in prior to the advent of the ANC Government.  He ignored the fact that the Government actively worked to dismantle the rail system, selling 3 000 goods wagons to China as scrap steel, before buying an equivalent number of new wagons, of quality inferior to those sold, from China, and closed down numerous railway lines, which now have to be reinstated at massive cost.  He ignores the fact that the ANC Government has achieved a lowering of the investment status of South African bonds on the world market, making it both more difficult and more expensive to raise the funds required for the developments.  He explains that the increase in the capacity of Eskom has resulted in increasing opportunities to BEE entrepreneurs to enter into supply contracts, ignoring that the BEE system has been exposed as a massive source of fraud, corruption and increased costs, all of which come out of the public pockets.

Mr Gigaba announced that the ANC intends to apply itself to improving the quality of education.  Apart from the fact that this promise has been made repeatedly over the years that the ANC has been in power with no result, one wonders why the ANC should now, after being in control of the economy for eighteen years, suddenly decide that education is both a priority and a problem!  The Government induced the problem in the first place, by retrenching thousands of well-qualified White teachers, by closing the Colleges that produced those teachers, by promoting the Trade Union stance that teachers should not be subject to the normal controls, both in regard to management of the schools and within the schools, and in regard to the evaluation of the performance of the teachers, to ensure that they are providing to the children what they are paid to do.  The program that the ANC now has in mind is no better than what existed prior to the ANC starting its depredations of the State coffers.  If it goes ahead, which is always doubtful in the light of the apparent almost complete inability of the ANC actually to carry out any plan that is not well supported by opportunities for corruption, one wonders whether those at the helm will have the competence and the will to bring the education system back to what it was, never mind what it should be.

While Mr Gigaba sounds earnest and convincing, unfortunately, a comparison of the actual performance of his Party with its plans and programs announced with much fanfare over the years, must surely bring any rational voter to the conclusion that the ANC is not, and probably never will be, a party that should be entrusted with the management of South Africa’s increasingly fragile economy.