Duma Gqubule, an economist and one of the foremost social, political commentators in the country, recently posted on Facebook, describing, and implying, that the energy crisis facing the country may be a ticking time bomb, and “a calamity [that] has cost the economy R602-billion this year alone”.
“Our energy availability factor has now collapsed to about 50%. We have had 3 618 hours of power blackouts this year (2022). This means that we had no power for about 42% of the time in 2022. ”
This is how far I will borrow from Gqubule’s words, which by any stretch of the imagination, are profound words for all South Africans to ponder. For they ring alarming bells, that the country is in crisis of huge proportion, and that those who run this country must take heed to avert a looming disaster.
Today the ANC gathers in Mangaung, the womb of its birthplace in 1912, 111 years ago, to celebrate a milestone. The world, since then, has evolved, as have the country’s social, economic and political life. The struggle for liberation and attainment of democracy is a battle that has been won, at least on paper, if we consider the extent to which the country has been limping from one crisis to the next during this nearly 30 years of our “uhuru” and democracy and liberation – a painful and exhausting experience for many South Africans, particularly black people.
Now we must ask what milestone is being celebrated.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will today deliver the January 8 statement, most of which will be interspersed with self-congratulatory undertones and will possibly assure this nation that his administration is not sleeping on the job, and will do what it can to pull the country out of its present mire, which, in the words of Gqubule, “has cost the economy R602-billion”.
Hyperbole does not work, and what would be the point to exaggerate when the facts and economic indices speak for themselves? South Africa is, economically, politically and socially speaking, in a bad shape.
Do political principals in charge of the country have the will to pull us out of this rut?
At the conclusion of the ANC Nasrec elective conference, provincial delegates committed themselves to forging unity.
Ramaphosa extensively talked about the need to restore the organisation’s credibility among South Africans. He admitted there were missteps, and that these must be eradicated.
Nearly two decades ago, former president Thabo Mbeki argued about the country’s parallel economic universes – one for the “haves” and the other for the “have-nots”.
Years after the delivery of the watershed speech, not much has changed. The parallel economic universes still exist, and the energy crisis Gqubule referred to affects mostly the “have-nots” who do not have the economic means to purchase generators, as they become crime victims, easily waylaid, and killed.
This is Ramaphosa’s true dilemma.
- Mdhlela is a freelance journalist, Anglican priest, ex-trade unionist and former publications editor of the SA Human Rights Commission journals
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