The ANC government’s failure to deliver economic prosperity to the masses of SA is putting it under increased pressure to consider the cheap option of looting!
"If we may be allowed to pose the question: is there anything intrinsic in the private sector that makes it more efficient and competent? or, posed differently, is there anything in the public sector that makes it intrinsically antithetical to all of this." Said Public Enterprises Minister, Malusi Gigaba.
Yes Minister there is something intrinsically inherent in State –Owned-Enterprises that make them inefficient, incompetent and corrupt. Whilst those in the Private Sector know that if they are not competitive in any way; everyone in the company from the top to the bottom will go under. The same can not be said about those in SOE, the taxpayer will bailed the company regardless how they performed. Indeed instead of concentrating of the performance of the company SOE employees are often more concerned about pleasing those who helped them land their job. Is it any wonder then corrupt, incompetent and inefficient is endemic in SOE.
The purpose of government is to create the economic environment in which private sector can grow and thrive and all the citizens a fair crack of the whip. It is those who having failed to compete fairly in the private sector who seeks to replace the private sector with the SOE, BBE schemes, etc. in which they can use political connections and/or corrupt practices to gain the competitive advantage.
It is not a matter of political ideology that SOE have failed to delivery masses prosperity; it is a historic fact. All State who imposed SOE, do so in the name of the masses. When the masses realise that the SOE are making their economic situation worse and not better these State have turned to more and more repressive measures to silence the masses.
Tyrannical regimes are obsessed about political power and to them political power without economic power is simply unthinkable. The first thing that the Mugabe regime, for example, did as soon as it got into power was to buy off as many private sector companies and turn them into outright public sector companies or turn them over to individuals whose loyalty to the party was unquestionable.
There is a direct collation between the demise of Zimbabwe’s private sector, prominence of SOE and Zanu PF controlled companies and the country’s economic decline. With the economic decline came increased political repression to stop the electorate protesting.
Mugabe’s seizure of white owned farms did not make any economic sense and it was the last straw that resulted in the economic melt down. The only reason Mugabe pursued this is because, one, he had nothing else of economic value to bribe his wasteful and ever demanding cronies. Two, he desperately needed a smoke screen behind which to hide his increased brutal political repression. Mugabe has cleverly maintained it his land reform policy his political critics, especially the West, are against and he has to remain in power at all cost to ensure the policy is not reversed. The truth is he turned the party militia, the Police, Army and other state security operatives into thugs to terrorise and murder the electorate and stop them exercise their democratic right to a free vote.
SA’s ANC government is seeking to destroy the country private sector for the same reason Mugabe did but from a different angle.
Minister Gigala, your ANC government has failed to meet the economic aspirations of the people because your party did not have the visionary leaders required to harness SA’s full economic potential and deliver the mass prosperity. As if that was not bad enough, corruption in high places has become rampant undermining the power and authority of the leaders and thus of government to act on matters of public interest.
Opportunists like Malema are “cashing-in” on the ANC’s leadership failure weaknesses by offering the masses a short-cut out of their lives of poverty and want – Mugabe style forced seizures of white owned farms, nationalisation of mines, etc. A pie is the sky, of course, because these measures will result in the same economic decline as befall the Zimbabwean economy. Indeed the continued failure by the SA government to take a firm principle stand against Mugabe’s continued violation of property rights and Malema’s rhetoric have had a negative effect on SA’s economy. Who would want to invest in a country where property rights are not assured?
Minister Gigala and his fellow ANC leaders will very soon embrace the nationalisation of mines and all Malema’s other hare-brain schemes as a matter of politically expedience. No one in ANC would want to admit this, of course, and hence the announcement that the party will conduct an independent study on the viability of nationalisation as if there can be any economic merit to such a myopic scheme. It is ANC’s feeble attempt to present a political fudge as an ideological shift!
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The Economist has rated Harare “the worst city to live in”.
A Mugabe die hard supporter hit back claiming his whole family was moving back to Harare to leave “cr@p” London behind. One has to ask why did they leave Harare in the first place? ". This article was highlighting the plight of the ordinary people, the masses, the 80 to 90% of the population. Unlike you, your uncles, etc. who constituting the 10% or so; you have everything. You have the money to buy and run generators, who send their children to private school and have the choice to leave in "cr@p" London. They, on the other hand, have nothing; they have to put up with the water and power cuts, suffer because the health and education systems have all but collapsed. They would be glad to leave Zimbabwe for “cr@p” London and do any job going if they could!
You deride the findings above because it included the masses; to tyrants like Mugabe and you his cronies the masses count not at all and the regime has treated them accordingly; riding rough shod over their hopes, dreams and human dignity! Still poor and oppressive these long suffering Zimbabweans are human beings, even in death; not even Mugabe can deny them of that!
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