It’s almost as if leadership paralysis and top-level infighting has filtered down to a micro level of inaction.
Apart from Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan lashing the Guptas - just a few weeks before he’s due to appear in court himself, and days before he’s due to present what will probably be his most important mini-budget speech ever - we have the Guptas fighting back, and President Jacob Zuma in a Captain Obvious moment admitting the economy is, well, stagnant.
And that, frankly, is pretty much a wrap of the business news this week.
Sure, we still have Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to entertain us, and students are still up in arms - and throwing rocks - over varsity fees . And taxi drivers went on a strike in Joburg earlier this week, although it, frankly, looked more like a party-that-could-turn-nasty in a major intersection from where I was sitting. And the students left Braamfontein’s roads littered with rocks (you all owe me new tyres).
And we have a new Public Protector .
And, that was about it from a news point of view.
It’s as if everyone is holding tight ahead of Gordhan’s mini-budget speech next Wednesday .
Sadly, life isn’t like that.
We all have to get out of bed, through the shower, and go to work. And drive – carefully – through the plethora of traffic lights that don’t work. And navigate our way through rivers that have been caused by burst water pipes.
What a waste
I’ve lost count of how many burst pipes I’ve driven past recently; the road I live in is resplendent with them, the freeway offramp has one that goes every few weeks, Louis Botha – the main drag between town and Alex – has another.
And here we all are, being urged to save water .
I’ve taken that call so seriously I won’t wash my car until the drought is over. And, no, the rain we’re having now doesn’t count. It must be well and truly over. (And if I catch the idiot who keeps writing “pls warsh mee” on my car’s paintwork...)
If anything, the fact that we have endless burst water pipes – and power outages, and broken traffic lights – is, for me, symptomatic of the state of the country. And the economy.
We can ill afford anything we’re going through at the moment. We cannot afford the international markets’ displeasure over Gordhan’s charges. We cannot afford a downgrade. And we most definitely cannot afford to throw water away when the Vaal Dam is almost empty.
Monthly basket
This drought will see food prices shoot up even more. Already, essential food items are 15 percent more expensive . I see that every month. It’s got to the point where I ask a friend to shop for me; I can’t bear seeing the prices anymore and she isn’t tempted to grab a few chocolate bars.
And those who are not in gainful employment? And those who are already living on the breadline?
That’s a hardship I cannot even bear to think about. And it shouldn’t be like this; we shouldn’t have an official unemployment rate that constantly sits at about a quarter of the working population, and an unofficial rate that’s creeping up towards meaning that half of all those who can work don’t.
Economic growth of 0.8 percent doesn’t create jobs. Growth of 5 percent and above may.
None of what we are going through is going to create jobs. Not unless we get our A into G and actually act. Now.
It’s well past time that we examine the granular details. Look at the micro picture. It’s no longer good enough to wash our hands and blame others, we need to fix the economy, and to do that, we need to start by looking at the seemingly small things that are going wrong.
Like water rushing down a street amid the worst drought we’re experiencing in recorded history. Like traffic lights that don’t work for weeks on end, and cut into productivity because of the time wasted in traffic. Like companies having to buy generators because there are still power outages – load shedding by another name?
And it’s way past the time when those in charge should be manoeuvring to boost their egos and secure their future at the cost of those they are meant to represent and look after.
There is too much to lose: this shouldn’t be about a political power play; people’s lives are at stake here.
* Nicola Mawson is the online editor of Business Report. Follow her on Twitter @NicolaMawson or Business Report @busrep.
IOL