US
President Donald Trump made a point in his inauguration speech to
emphasise his election pledge to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure
investment over 10 years. He has repeatedly promised to “rebuild our
highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools and hospitals”.
In
his inauguration address, the Republican president said the nation’s
infrastructure “has fallen into disrepair and decay”. Those words could
just as easily have been applied to South Africa’s infrastructure, and
that of many other countries. South Africa is not alone in facing an
infrastructure backlog. Rapid wealth accumulation and assets such as
cars, as well as a far more mobile population, in many countries means
their infrastructure is as inadequate as ours.
Corporate
South Africa is currently flush cash, sitting on more than R725 billion
balance sheet cash. It’s obvious South Africa Inc is on a long-term
investment strike – at home, at least. It’s possible Trump could be the
key to unlocking these corporate balance sheets. It is evident that
business will be prepared to invest in the local economy where
incentives are in place to overcome other concerns. We already have
templates of successful Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) in several
sectors of the economy. In the renewable energy and toll road sectors,
regulations exist. Car manufacturing companies also invest due to well
thought out policy and predictable incentive packages. These examples
create many jobs and stimulate the economy at negligible cost to
government. It needs to be rolled out to many more sectors, starting
with accelerated toll road building.
The
South African government could take a leaf from Trump’s book – he has
agreed to a policy that provides tax credits or tolls on new roads. The
US plan in its current rough form would seek to incentivise the private
sector to increase investment in infrastructure projects on the basis of
tax credits and future usage fees, such as road tolls. As a result, US
governors have already flagged 300 high-priority projects that are ready
to proceed ‘today’.
In
the US there is a full consensus that there are infrastructure problems
in the US. We could do well to follow policy leads from some of these
countries. There is already a full consensus in South Africa. There is
also the capital on South Africa Inc’s balance sheet.
To
kickstart South Africa’s own infrastructure roll-out would simply
require a change of heart by government as to the level of private
participation. For instance, Trump’s policy aims to essentially sidestep
political squabbles by focusing mostly on private investment. Here is a
policy choice that South Africa could immediately follow for quick
results.
Trump
is not the only leader looking to stimulate infrastructure development
through the private sector: Germany, India and Chile are also looking at
private sector participation in their road systems. Tolls generate
sufficient cash flow to develop the infrastructure more efficiently.
Dog rape in South Africa, does not end. On Monday May 8, a local South African newspaperDaily Sunpublished a story about a man raping a pregnant dog. Here is the story.
NOMHLE Punguzwa’s dog was very popular ekasi, but little did she know that her neighbour had evil thoughts about her pet.
On Saturday morning, the 37-year-old from Joe Slovo in Port Elizabeth was horrified when her pregnant dog was allegedly raped!
She told Daily Sun: “At 7am, a neighbour woke me up after seeing my neighbour taking my dog into his house.”
Nomhle said she rushed to the house fearing the suspect was going to kill her pet. “We
knocked at his door but he didn’t open. We waited for over 30 minutes
before I went to fetch my uncle. Soon other neighbours were also on the
scene,” she said.
“We entered his house and I saw my dog escaping
through the fence. Her privates were bleeding and she was crying in
pain. We decided to call the cops.”
When police arrived with the
SPCA, they found blood stains on the floor and arrested the neighbour.
“The SPCA took my dog for treatment and confiscated his own dog.”
Nomhle said the man destroyed the love she had for her dog.
“She was like my baby. People adored her. She was pregnant when this evil man raped her,” she said. “I
hope the SPCA keeps my dog because I’m traumatised. I can’t live with
her anymore because I constantly will be reminded of what happened to
her.”
The suspect was taken to Kwadwesi Police Station. At the time of going to print, the officers’ phones were switched off. Here is the link to thesource again.
In the post we have posted several articles about animal abuse including dog rape. Here is one of the old ones.
Many of my friends will
remember Natasha, the young girl who had her leg amputated about two years
ago.About five weeks ago Natasha became
very ill, and her mother took her to the hospital.Since being there, she deteriorated, and today, her mother told me she
has died.
I knew Natasha for many years,
and all through the traumatic and happy times, she remained a young woman seeking
to walk in the light. Today, I believe that she is finally in the light, and in
death has found her peace.
South Africa has seen a great deal of progress in many spheres of life since non-racial democracy in 1994, yet many of its people are still waiting for their hard-won freedom to pay dividends. Economic freedom still eludes them.
Unemployment is stubbornly high and the redistribution of wealth and land hasn’t been successful. It seems that the country’s leaders have hijacked this freedom in pursuit of their own selfish gains.
Politically exposed people, public officials and cronies in the private sector abuse their contacts, positions and influence unashamedly. Social pathologies such as rampant corruption and state looting are the order of the day. The cult of materialism is destroying the moral fibre of the nation.
What the country needs now is moral leadership that brings deep and lifelong changes to individuals and communities. It urgently needs leadership born of sound core values and characterised by accountable management.
There are fortunately well established models that set out what the characteristics of this kind of leadership are. South Africans should draw on these so that they know what it is that makes up moral leadership traits.
The four key-drives theory
The late Harvard Business School Professor Paul Lawrence says that all animals survive guided by two innate drives, or ultimate motives: firstly to acquire essential resources and offspring; secondly to defend themselves and their property.
Humans have evolved to require two additional drives – to bond in trusting, caring, long-term relationships and the drive to comprehend – that is to learn, understand and create.
According to Lawrence, good moral leaders hold these four drives in dynamic balance, weighing and balancing conflicting demands.
He states that the four drives, when expressed as nouns rather than verbs, yield four important core values: prosperity (resources), peace/trust (bond), knowledge (comprehend), and justice (defend). Just as with the drives, the best leaders attend to all four values simultaneously.
Prosperity seeks to improve every citizen’s ability to obtain the necessary resources. Leaders honestly ask what other people are entitled to, and then promote it at all cost. This asks restraint and self-sacrifice, simplicity and contentment. Greedy and power-hungry leaders, who only focus on their own success and enrichment, are in the light of the four key-drives theory, primitive and destructive.
A deviation from this was seen when Brian Molefe, former CEO at Eskom, almost walked away with a R30.1 million “golden handshake” even though he was at the power utility for only 18 months. This, after he resigned as CEO in November 2016 under a cloud after being fingered in former public protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela’s “State of Capture” report. He is now an MP of the governing ANC.
Justice-based leadership keeps the other person safe, as well as his loved ones and property, protects their names, and preserves their integrity. This kind of leadership tracks fraudsters and criminals and punishes them unashamedly. It doesn’t put a veil over injustice.
And justice is never prioritised in a leader’s interest and or survival. One cannot defend the indefensible. But, in October 2016 South Africa started the process to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) - an institution designed to hold war criminals to account, and to deliver justice for their victims.
Protesters outside the offices of fired finance minister Pravin Gordhan in Pretoria. Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
The move was a direct result of the government’s failure in 2015 to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir as required by the ICC and the country’s laws. But justice triumphed in the end. Earlier this year the government found itself with egg on its face when the Pretoria High Court declared SA’s withdrawal from the ICC unconstitutional and invalid.
Trust that is essential to caring and social cohesion, keeps promises and doesn’t cheat. It acts with respect, honour and recognition, which in turn are important elements for peace, reliability and stability. This asks tremendous courage, because one is often on one’s own, threatened, bullied and even reviled.
Barbara Hogan, anti-apartheid activist, former minister and the widow of struggle veteran Ahmed Kathrada exhibited these qualities when she courageously called Zuma to go. She reiterated Kathrada’s call to Zuma to step down for the good of all South Africans.
Knowledge and expertise to understand one’s world, place and role in it is extremely important. It is to know the importance of speaking truth and acting with integrity. It doesn’t withhold, but discloses. It doesn’t mock, but respects. It doesn’t intimidate, but inspires. It doesn’t manipulate, but motivates. It doesn’t bully, but protects. The larger the island of knowledge and expertise, the longer the coastline of respect, trust and admiration.
But the abnormal has, in some respects, become normal in South Africa.
That’s why parliament continued to maintain that nothing different was done at the state of the nation address earlier this year even when armed soldiers were photographed strategically blocking off areas in the parliamentary precinct, a move criticised as unseemly militarisation of parliament. And, footage clearly showed journalists being impeded despite parliament’s official assurances over several days that this would not happen.
The need for role models
What South Africa needs are ethical leaders modelling core values, in line with these innate key-drivers. Leaders who have the ability to honestly deal with their own weaknesses. This is not an option, but a national imperative.
Fortunately, there are examples South Africans can turn to. Take Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s historic judgment last year in the Nkandla case involving the illegal use of millions of public money for upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s private homestead. Justice Mogoeng said Zuma had breached his constitutional duty by ignoring the Public Protector’s remedial action. Mogoeng’s behaviour displayed high ethical value.
At the moment South Africa is paying a very high price for the lack of moral leadership. This is true in relation to its economy, politics, education, social security, service delivery, and health services because certain influential politicians got stuck in a twisted first drive of self-enrichment – and bling.
South Africa has long been described as the “protest capital of the world”. But the protests have largely been confined to black townships and informal settlements.
The student protests of 2015-2016 suggested that this was beginning to change, with students of all races marching to places such as the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) headquarters Luthuli House, Parliament and Union Buildings. But the most recent marches were the first time in post-apartheid South Africa that such a united force was seen against a president and the governing party - the ANC.
This followed growing discontent towards President Jacob Zuma and the ANC that was reflected in the loss of support in the 2016 local government elections. The outcry following Zuma’s recent cabinet reshuffle, widely seen as being influenced by the interests of the Gupta family, culminated in nationwide protests on 7 April 2017.
Thousands of people marched across the country, notably in Pretoria, Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town, demanding that Zuma resign. These were followed by a march of the combined main opposition parties on Wednesday 12 April to the seat of government in Pretoria that attracted tens of thousands of protesters, making it possibly the largest march in post-apartheid history.
What might these marches tell us about the future direction of South Africa’s political landscape?
The 7 April march was largely organised under the banner of the Save South Africa campaign, which is made up of a variety of civil society organisations and business leaders. The predominately middle class makeup of the campaign was widely debated online. But who did attend and why? Was this a rebellion of the white middle class?
A research team from the University of Johannesburg decided to find out by conducting a short survey with 185 marchers. While a small sample, the research team felt that provided a fairly accurate sample and an indicative sense of who was involved and why.
Our findings were that the majority of those who marched were middle-class and mostly black. Most said they were there to protest against Zuma.
Who marched?
Of the 185 people surveyed, 56% were black African and 30% were white. The marchers were predominately middle class. Of those surveyed, 58% held what could be considered middle class occupations – either professional or managerial, technician and associated professions or clerks. Only 10% could be regarded as holding traditionally working class occupations – either skilled manual labour or trades work, domestic work or elementary. 13% were self-employed.
The middle class nature of the protest is reinforced when looking at the marchers’ place of residence and mode of transport to the march. Most of the marchers surveyed lived in a suburb (74%) and nearly half (42%) used a private car to travel to the march. The average age of the marcher surveyed was 41, again suggesting that the marchers were likely to be people somewhat established in their careers. Just under two thirds (61%) were men.
Why did people march?
The reasons that people gave for marching can be categorised into one of five themes: anti-Zuma, change, social justice, the economy and/or corruption and other. The anti-Zuma theme was the most popular, with 41% of marchers surveyed providing this as their reason for attending.
Protesters in Cape Town call on President Zuma to step down. Reuters/Sumaya Hisham
But identifying as anti-Zuma should not be equated with being anti-ANC. A number of respondents made clear that their opposition was to Zuma and not to the ANC. For instance, a retired 58 year old white man from Centurion said that he was at the march
to support all South Africans to get rid of the Zuptas (Zuma and the Guptas), not the ANC.
While a black African self-employed 42-year old women from Benoni said
Zuma must go! Leadership is not for the people… I’m an ANC person but we want our old ANC back.
Nearly half (48%) of black Africans responded with anti-Zuma sentiments. For white respondents, this was the second most common response, 26%. The second most common theme overall, and the most common theme for white respondents, was social justice. This encompassed a broad range of perspectives. For instance, one white 48-year-old housewife from Centurion said
tax money … is not being used to help the poor. Zuma misuses our money, the poor get poorer. Struggle people didn’t die for this!
Other respondents displayed their concern for social justice around a rights-based discourse. One 22-year-old black African student from the Pretoria suburb of Faerie Glen said he was at the march “in defence of the constitution”. While others framed their reason for being at the march around the future of their children.
The third most common theme was concerns for the economy and or corruption. For instance, a black 33-year-old operations manager from Randburg said,
My mom is a government employee – her pension fund will be looted and it’s not their money. Zero leadership in this country. State is corrupt. Junk status.
Women were slightly more likely than men to raise issues of the economy and or corruption. Lastly, need for change accounted for 11% of respondents. No significant difference in the reasons for marching by class could be determined, partly because the sample of working class people was too small to draw any conclusions.
Future prospects
Most of the respondents surveyed were not part of any political grouping, with most (57%) reporting that they had attended the march with family or friends, and nearly a quarter (23%) saying they had come alone. Time will tell whether this loose network of people will be able to build and sustain a collective movement. As other commentators have highlighted, a movement that centres on removing Zuma alone is unlikely to bring the socio-economic change demanded by poor and working class protesters almost daily in the country’s mainly black townships and informal settlements. Can concerns for the pensions of government employees be united with demands for service delivery from those very same government employees? It remains to be seen.
Molefe Pilane, an independent researcher, contributed to the survey.
