Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says the government has done a great job. The state of the nation is the private sector’s fault.
It seems Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has sent her colleagues into damage control mode this week with her senseless comments about the private sector trying to collapse the government. But it also seems she is living in a parallel universe to the one the rest of us South Africans are residing in.
Minister Ntshavheni believes we should be realistic about the great job that the government has done in improving access to electricity, amongst other services.
In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, she commented that if one compared the South Africa of 2022 to the South Africa of 1994 or 1990, many poor citizens would say it is now a better place.
In many ways this is true. Obviously, there is no structural apartheid for one. Most poor in the country remain black women, according to Stats SA, the demographic worst affected by apartheid. Our human rights are enshrined in our incredible Constitution and that wasn’t the reality thirty years ago. The government has made efforts in electrification, water supply and housing to remedy the impact of apartheid segregation and spatial planning.
But there is a compelling case to be made against Ntshavheni’s statement in terms of service delivery, crime, and economic growth.
Let’s look at various independent reports released in just the last week that paint a bleak picture of the state of the country.
The State of South African Children report released by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in partnership with Delloite Africa, is a terrifying assessment of what life is like for the kids of South Africa.
While violent crimes against children have declined, one out of five children are victims of sexual abuse. The report details how children experience sexual abuse, corporal punishment, and gang-related violence.
It found that 4.8 million children in the country live below the poverty line and that 62.1% of SA children between the ages of 0-17 years old are multidimensionally poor. Child mortality has rocketed. Malnutrition and the lack of immunisation and access to medical services were drivers of this.
The Institute for Security Studies released a report which tells us about the surging murder rate in the country. It has reached a record twenty-year high of 45 per 100 000 in the last year.
Just four of the nine provinces accounted for 83% of murders recorded in the entire country.
What this really tells us is how the police are failing to keep South Africans safe. Criminals are not being held to account under the law either. Only one in ten murder cases result in convictions.
Economically, the Hausmann Harvard report is a harrowing assessment of the performance of our government over the past three decades. The report is the result of extremely detailed and broad research conducted by Harvard University’s Growth Lab, under the leadership of economics professor and former Venezuela’s Minister of Planning Ricardo Hausmann.
The report looks at why our economy has failed to grow and how cadre deployment, political patronage, preferential procurement processes and collapsing state capacity have played a role in curbing growth.
“South Africa faces deteriorating social indicators and declining levels of public satisfaction. Attempts to stimulate the economy through fiscal policy and to address exclusion through social grants have failed to achieve their goals. Instead, they have sacrificed the country’s investment grade, increasing the cost of capital to the whole economy, with little social progress,” finds the report.
Crucially, the report also suggests solutions to the problems that are hindering the country and impeding growth. Key amongst these is our ‘green growth potential’ to drive the economy. The report has been handed to Treasury and government officials would do well not to ignore the recommendations.
Minister in the Presidency Ntshavheni has been quick to criticize the private sector this week and her comments about businesses’ attempts to ‘collapse the government’ may well erode eagerness amongst CEOs involved in various workstreams to collaborate with the public sector.
Perhaps she should go read the various reports mentioned here that have been released in the past week to get a better appreciation of how desperately the government needs any help it can get to improve the lives of its citizens.
By Mandy Wiener – Midday Report Host on 702
[This article first appeared/published on EWN and 702]
