http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page292681?oid=535130&sn=2009+Detail&pid=287226
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Specific problems aside, among the main reasons we are going wrong are the following:
•Affirmative action, which has denuded the State of both skills and institutional memory
•Labour laws which protect unionised workers at the expense of the jobless
•The cadre deployment policy, making loyalty to the party a key criterion for appointment to offices of state, and
•Use of a model of government which makes elected institutions more accountable to party headquarters than to voters.
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Among the reasons why apartheid disintegrated, two are relevant today. One is that its contradictions - notably the belief that you could run a modern economy without exploiting the skills of the whole population and granting them political rights - became unsustainable.
The second reason was that, as the policy crumbled under the weight of critical scrutiny and its own contradictions, the ruling elite began to lose faith in it. Disillusionment spread from the Dutch reformed churches, to the Afrikaans Press, to academia, to business, to the ruling party, to the Cabinet, and not least to the Broederbond. This made Mr FW de Klerk's bold actions on 2nd February 1990 both necessary and possible.
Parallels between the last 25 years of National Party rule and the first 15 years of ANC rule are becoming quite striking....
The most obvious is on racial policy. The NP thought it could run a successful economy without fully exploiting the skills of the black population. The ANC thinks it can run a successful state without fully exploiting the skills of the white population.
Unfortunately, however, one of the parallels with our past is that failed policies are sometimes intensified rather than abandoned. This happened with the pass laws, for example, before PW Botha finally repealed them in 1986. It may also happen now with the Employment Equity Act, with its provisions for heavier fines to enforce racial quotas upon all employers
But there are other parallels. Just as the National Party steadily lost support among the intelligentsia, the same is happening with the ANC. Some black newspaper editors and journalists are at least as critical of the ANC as their white counterparts
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The ANC's economic objectives simply cannot be achieved while everything is subordinate to racial ideology and the imperatives of the "national democratic revolution". This message needs to be hammered home without reservation or apology until a critical mass of opinion within the ruling alliance comes to recognise it
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Thirdly, keep proposing alternatives to present policies. Business may not necessarily see a direct role for itself here, but it is nevertheless essential that alternatives be put forward. Here is my list of a dozen:
1. Cut back on the size of the State
2. Put inspectors back into schools
3. Systematically extend private education
4. Radically redesign land reform
5. Democratise Parliament
6. Liberalise the labour market
7. Make economic growth rather than redistribution the topmost priority
8. Change our welfare state into one that promotes entrepreneurship
9. Direct all state interventions at helping the poorest of the poor regardless of race
10. Replace the deployment system with a professional civil service
11. Increase our global competitiveness as a destination for foreign direct investment
12. Repeal all racially discriminatory laws
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