Max du Preez: One thing more dramatic than SA's state capture

[Alan]

Cape Town - As dramatic as state capture is, the SA story of how civil society pushed back is even more dramatic, political analyst Max du Preez said on Thursday."This is not the kind of thing you will see in other young democracies," he said as a guest speaker at the annual Nedbank VinPro Information Day for the wine industry. m"For this country of ours, which US President Donald Trump calls 'South ****hole', the pendulum is swinging back. 'South ****hole' has hit rock bottom and is climbing up - how long it will take remains to be seen."

Du Preez said the era of SA President Jacob Zuma introduced concepts like state capture and tenderpreneurship to South Africans."He outsourced the power we gave him to an immigrant family in exchange for money. The old way of doing things is over now with the election of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC president. Zuma is a wiley street fighter, while Cyril is a fine strategist and sophisticated urbanite," said Du Preez.

"Cyril is the opposite of a cheap populist and SA’s first democratic president not coming from the ANC in exile or the Mandela-era Robben Islanders. He will represent SA at the WEF as our de facto leader and will not embarrass us as has happened before in Davos." In Du Preez's view, the wave of civil society activism has played a big part in securing a Ramaphosa win against Zuma's favourite, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. For him (Du Preez) the whole civil society push back started with the Nkandla Report by former public protector Tuli Madonsela and the Constitutional Court supporting her.

Zuma's firing of former finance ministers Nhlanhla Nene and Pravin Gordhan added to the civil society reaction, in his view, prompting various organisations to take action; leading to opposition parties starting to "talk to each other", and turning parliamentary portfolio committees into watchdogs again.

"Many call South Africa a failing state, but all studies conclude that open societies never become failed states. South Africa is one of the most open societies in the world. We also have religious tolerance and no culture of military intervention," said Du Preez. In his view, Ramaphosa's biggest challenge is the kind of "cheap populism" experienced in SA over the last few years.

"Cheap populism is dangerous. Populists divide society into 'oppressing elite' and 'oppressed masses'. They promise people stuff (they cannot deliver)," said Du Preez. "Cyril has a difficult task in having to tell South Africans that if you piss off the markets, they will punish you. You cannot run an economy on an island. That is what he has to tell his NEC," said Du Preez. As for land reform, he foresees Ramaphosa calling for an investigation into the issue and the courts would have a role to play too in order to ensure that agricultural production and food security are not impacted.

For Du Preez it is better to have a "stable ANC" ruling the country than the party not getting a majority vote in the next national election.

"Despite what economists say, if we can get a spark of belief in the business sector, others will start believing in SA again, possibly then bringing a new investment," he said. "It is wise to warn against seeing Cyril as the Messiah, though. Cyril has to be strong and has to make some difficult decisions, but he restored our country's national order. This active civil society won't tolerate any abuse of power by him (either)."

https://www.fin24.com/Economy/max-du-preez-one-thing-more-dramatic-than-sas-state-capture-20180118

 

[Ninja'd]

First 3 letters of the headline is all you need to know about the article.

 

[LCBXX]

What is the alternative? The DA?? The EFF???

 

[RaptorSA]

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/08/05/us/05onfire1_xp/05onfire1_xp-facebookJumbo.jpg

 

[Garson007]

I'll believe it when I see it.

The South African economy can grow, but for that we need to drastically decrease unemployment. Unemployment should be our biggest concern. If Ramaphosa doesn't change our labour laws (and other business stifling regulations and taxes) I don't see how it could happen, whether he is "friendly" to business or not.

 

[Gnome]

What is the alternative? The DA?? The EFF???

In a democracy you get the best results when parties are vying for control. Like the US where democrats and republicans at various times sit at the helm.

It makes it a lot easier to keep people accountable.

Trump is a bit of an interesting one. I'm curious to see how he will impact the republican party in the next election (either really good or really bad imo).

So to answer your question, both the EFF and DA would be better options, even if for one term, it'll scare the ANC into action.

 

[Former member 61586]

Cyril is the opposite of a cheap populist. :crylaugh:

 

[LCBXX]

In a democracy you get the best results when parties are vying for control. Like the US where democrats and republicans at various times sit at the helm.

It makes it a lot easier to keep people accountable.

Trump is a bit of an interesting one. I'm curious to see how he will impact the republican party in the next election (either really good or really bad imo).

So to answer your question, both the EFF and DA would be better options, even if for one term, it'll scare the ANC into action.

The point is then still that it is better to have a scared, but in power, ANC. No sound of mind person would ever want the EFF to govern and the DA is practically leaderless as it stands, with no practical political narrative other than the work done by Mashaba, Trollip and Msimanga.

 

[Alan]

Cyril is the opposite of a cheap populist. :crylaugh:

More an intellectual giant like Mbeki.

 

[NarrowBandFtw]

Cyril is the opposite of a cheap populist. :crylaugh:

as if we need an expensive populist :erm:

 

[ngwe23]

I'll believe it when I see it.

The South African economy can grow, but for that we need to drastically decrease unemployment. Unemployment should be our biggest concern. If Ramaphosa doesn't change our labour laws (and other business stifling regulations and taxes) I don't see how it could happen, whether he is "friendly" to business or not.

You are putting the horse before the cart. The economy grows, absorbing more people which then leads to lower unemployment. Not the other way round.

 

[Gnome]

The point is then still that it is better to have a scared, but in power, ANC. No sound of mind person would ever want the EFF to govern and the DA is practically leaderless as it stands, with no practical political narrative other than the work done by Mashaba, Trollip and Msimanga.

I disagree, having any party at the helm for a long time has several significant side effects.

They fill the entire system with their cronies and friends. Even when "scared" they quickly revert back to the minimum effort for re-election.

It isn't even unique to politics.

It is the way all life on this planet operates. If you out "compete" everything else you can stop evolving because there is no impetus to do so.

For this country the best possible thing that could happen is for another party to win an election.

Even the EFF would find it neigh impossible to change things without a majority vote.

 

[thestaggy]

In Du Preez's view, the wave of civil society activism has played a big part in securing a Ramaphosa win against Zuma's favourite, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

No.

The thought of losing power and access to state coffers played the only roll in the Ramaphosa beating the Zuma cabal and even that defeat may have come with a lot of wheeling, dealing, greasing and paying-off in the background.

Lol, people still think that the ANC cares about what South Africans say or do.

 

[Garson007]

You are putting the horse before the cart. The economy grows, absorbing more people which then leads to lower unemployment. Not the other way round.

Yes, but to grow the economy you need to make the unemployed population employable on a cost/benefit basis. The economics of labour needs to make sense to the person providing the capital.

 

[Former member 61586]

More an intellectual giant like Mbeki.

Same intellectual giant who believed beetroot was the way to fight AIDS. Yeah.

 

[LCBXX]

Same intellectual giant who believed beetroot was the way to fight AIDS. Yeah.

I sometimes wonder if he was taking the piss with the veggie-diet narrative, knowing that he will never be held liable.

 

[konfab]

You are putting the horse before the cart. The economy grows, absorbing more people which then leads to lower unemployment. Not the other way round.

So how do you grow the economy then? I know ! Lets do the following (because it has never been tried before):
1) Trash property rights. Because everyone knows the best thing for investment is having your property stolen by the government.
2) Tax all the material wealth from the people who can use it best.
3) Simultaneously keep unproductive people in the labour force whilst excluding the productive people by making labour laws making it difficult to fire people.
4) Decree that certain segments of the population have to be limited in the fields that they work in because of transformation.
5) Create a state welfare dependency that ensures people never get desperate enough to find work.
6) Run a public propaganda system disguised as education that does not prepare anyone who goes through it for the real world, whilst lowering its standards to appease the political needs of the time.

All guaranteed to produce economic prosperity for all..


You are the one putting the horse before the cart. If you want to grow any economy in the world, you free it by putting as few restrictions on it as possible.

 

[ngwe23]

So how do you grow the economy then? I know ! Lets do the following (because it has never been tried before):
1) Trash property rights. Because everyone knows the best thing for investment is having your property stolen by the government.
2) Tax all the material wealth from the people who can use it best.
3) Simultaneously keep unproductive people in the labour force whilst excluding the productive people by making labour laws making it difficult to fire people.
4) Decree that certain segments of the population have to be limited in the fields that they work in because of transformation.
5) Create a state welfare dependency that ensures people never get desperate enough to find work.
6) Run a public propaganda system disguised as education that does not prepare anyone who goes through it for the real world, whilst lowering its standards to appease the political needs of the time.

All guaranteed to produce economic prosperity for all..


You are the one putting the horse before the cart. If you want to grow any economy in the world, you free it by putting as few restrictions on it as possible.

Before I waste my time reading this diatribe, does it have any relevence you the topic at hand?

 

[Former member 61586]

Before I waste my time reading this diatribe, does it have any relevence you the topic at hand?

It's actually quite ironic. You think he/she posts "diatribe", which it is I agree, but you are NO better. :crylaugh:

 

[Nick333]

You are putting the horse before the cart. The economy grows, absorbing more people which then leads to lower unemployment. Not the other way round.

If you have more people earning wages, you have more people spending more money which stimulates the economy which is then able to absorb more people.