IMHO, South Africa's problems are twofold. 1) We don't have nearly enough electricity and our biggest export is jobs followed closely by mineral resources. 2) Our culture is slowly deteriorating into one where promises are not kept. My suppliers promise me something. I sell it. When I come and buy it I discover it isn't available or the price has doubled, or something else is wrong, like I have to wait 6 months for it! This used to only happen in Government, eg my wife applied for a birth certificate which took 9 months to get; and locally the City of Cape Town had our Erf number wrong so we were getting someone else's electricity account. This took us about 3 years to resolve. Overseas a friend got a birth certificate, ID and passport in 20 minutes and a one day wait.
Government's role used to be as an enabler to get the economy going. Providing the basic infrastructure, eg electricity, water, roads, communications, sewerage. Based on this businesses grew and paid tax. And their employees also paid tax. This tax paid for the army, housing, education, medicine, etc.
Today government treats the economy's enablers as cash cows and by doing so continues to rapidly export jobs to countries that have or are adding electricity, like China, which adds South Africa's entire capacity every 38 weeks, and which this year will add more Renewable Energy than South Africa's entire capacity.
But if government stopped its myopia and allowed our economy to grow fast, it would collect three times as much taxation as it collects today!! And this is if it grew as fast as China, or Australia, or Ghana, or Mexico, or many other countries. We are the 37th fastest growing economy in Africa!! We can do something about it. It starts with electricity, which is one of the three main enablers for a modern economy. We have the other two: labour and resources.
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