The hype about the proposed presidential national dialogue must be accelerated, if only for one reason, and one reason only: the country is hurtling — like a runaway train — in dark places of political, economic and social uncertainties.
The levels of crime in SA are sky-rocketing.
It seems there may be people who may be committed to deliberately causing instability to undermine SA’s political project of working together and the prospects of economic green shoots and progress accompanying such a plan.
If that thinking is correct, one should not easily forget what the 2021 riots in Durban and other parts of the country caused this country — mayhem and ungovernability of great proportion.
Businesses and properties were burnt to the ground in many parts of the country, with many lives lost — a chain of events that caused incalculable paralysis to the economy and livelihoods.
To this day, many criminals who orchestrated and masterminded the bedlam, political and otherwise, have not been brought to book.
If anything, they are nicely ensconced in their ill-gotten estates in some of the best suburbs in the country, while the poor continue to eke out a mediocre existence, scavenging for scraps and morsels to make ends meet.
If it is true that the disgruntled political principalities could easily be aiding and abetting a section of the underworld to become agents of death and destruction of the economy if they do not get their way, then the World Bank report released not so long ago should be of great concern to all South Africans.
There is nothing that happens without a good cause, as Newton’s Third Law would remind us that “to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”.
The destruction ostensibly was in response to former president Jacob Zuma’s conviction by the Constitutional Court for contempt of court for his failure to comply with a court order compelling his testimony before the Zondo commission.
Added to this concerning state of affairs, the World Bank in its report last year placed the cost of crime in SA at 9.6% of the country’s gross domestic product, which is to say, the representation of total monetary value of all goods and services produced in a given year.
That is what the impact of crime can do to any economy — shaving off nearly 10% of the country’s wealth and misdirecting it to be enjoyed not by the good citizens but by criminal overlords.
The wasted resources, according to the World Bank, could have been better utilised to reduce poverty, and could have been productively invested to create more jobs.
Of this, the bank said: “The construction sector faces specific extortion problems linked to well-organised mafias, dubbed local business forums, that invade construction sites and demand a ransom or a stake in development projects, often violently.”
Shortly after the May 29 national and provincial electoral outcomes were announced, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the government of national unity would convene a national dialogue to include communities and political and social formations to come together to plan how to move South Africa to a place of safety where its wealth would accrue to all its citizens.
A national dialogue is a matter not to be taken lightly.
The outcome of the election five months ago, saw the electorate speak, tacitly telling political principalities of their displeasure about the way the country was run and indirectly saying: “We want to be heard; we want to be listened to.”
As an expression of that tacit call, the biggest party, the ANC, lost its outright majority. Both the EFF and DA took an electoral hammering.
Only the MK Party did well in KZN, showing it is a regional party without a national footprint.
To the surprise of many, it is the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, that has committed to meeting all communities across the board “to try to understand the needs of the communities in the new political and social milieu”.
Given the prevailing political and social instability, the country awaits Ramaphosa to convene the much-awaited dialogue, which hopefully will attempt to break the political logjam that South Africa has become.
Procrastination is no longer a choice.
• Mdhlela is a freelance journalist, an Anglican priest, an ex-trade unionist and former editor of the South African Human Rights Commission journals
