We are at the tail end of the year 2024, an eventful 12 months that will go down in history,
especially politically, as a turning point in SA.
This being the last edition of the year of the print version of the Sunday World – you, dear reader, can still have access to your favourite read on our website and the Sunday World App – we take stock and reflect on the year that was elsewhere in the edition.
The winding down and closure of the calendar year gives people time to pause, reflect and resolve to do better where they can. As a nation, we have made huge strides since 1994.
But there has always been a sense that we could have done much, much better. It is a sentiment we can, with certainty, claim resonates with the majority.
That was borne out in the outcomes of the May 29 national and provincial elections in which the ANC, once an untouchable behemoth commanding two-thirds of the electorate’s support, was cut to size.
Were South Africa a two-party democracy, the party of Nelson Mandela would have been relegated to the unfamiliar opposition benches in parliament after garnering a meagre 40% of the vote.
Today it hangs to a semblance of the kind of power it held in the past thanks to a coalition with the likes of the DA. Unfathomable.
It is a marriage of convenience that has unfortunately given leverage to a party known to bat for white privilege, with scant regard for the aspirations of the majority in this country.
We witnessed that not so long ago when its leadership and typical supporters congregated at the foot of the Voortrekker Hoogte in opposition to the recently and partly enacted Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, which on the whole seeks to correct the racial imbalances created by the apartheid education regime.
The showdown might in the end threaten the house of cards that is the GNU, as cautioned by DA federal chairperson Helen Zille on page 2 of this edition.
The jury is still out on the GNU and its impact, but its success or failure will alter the course of history.
On the economic front, there have been some notable improvements, with the last Statistics SA crunching showing that there were some marginal decreases in unemployment numbers in the second quarter of the year.
We returned a disappointing increase in the third quarter, but hope will be that the trajectory of the second quarter will somewhat be resumed in the closing quarter, which, given the frenzied spending madness of the festive season, always boosts the economy.
It is on the back of this optimism that we look ahead to the year 2025. SA will step into the new year wearing the mantle of the presidency of the G20.
We will host the G20 summit in the second half of the year, preceded by the B20 summit, its global business equivalent.
That augers well for economic growth not only for South Africa and the sub-continent, but Africa as a whole.
Indeed, President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared SA’s intention to use its G20 presidency to bat for developing countries and push the agenda of the global marginalised.
Hope springs eternal. Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year to you all.
