/ 26 March 2010

Nails in our economic coffin

Nails In Our Economic Coffin

Tenderpreneurship has become one of the nails that is certain to lock the coffin carrying our economy.

It is ‘burying” the very small economic growth aimed at by our national treasury. But the treasury has even more serious matters to contend with.

The visions, plans and operations of the departments of economic development and that of trade and industry are not congruent with that of the treasury, and quite distant from what is desired by Business Unity SA, as well as public- private partnerships and, dare to say, the silent Asgisa (accelerated and shared growth initiative for South Africa).

This disparate way of spending public and private money will haunt us when 2034 arrives.

What will South Africa look like and be like on May 10 2034?

It will be 40 years since the birth of our democracy. History seems to have taught us that if we are not at our preferred future by then, chances of ever reaching our nirvana will be slim.

To get there a number of things must be realised. The economy must have:

  • A manufacturing industry that has more than tripled in its outputs and more than quadrupled in its value additions;
  • A knowledge and cyber industry that benefits manufacturing and services to the extent that economic growth of 10% to 12% is the norm;
  • A highly developed tourism industry that feeds into the other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries;
  • Sustainable long-term manufacturing, knowledge and tourism strategic global alliances to ensure a ‘best life for all” within the SADC region — such sustainability cannot be realised only by ourselves;
  • The most positive alliances must be established within the ‘Abrica” countries: Africa, Brazil, Russia, India, China and Argentina; and
  • We must position our growth imperatives between our best comparative and competitive advantages when we create joint ventures that will realise our growth imperatives.

Such brave ent repreneurial steps cannot happen with our current absence of life-giving support systems for growth initiatives.

A number of economic-Maslovian fundamentals must be in place:

The country must be governed by a Parliament in which the governing party enjoys only a small majority over not more than two opposition parties.

Liberation politics must be something of the past.

Corruption, cronyism, fraud, bribery and the seeming demise of the independence of the judiciary must stop.

South Africa must have water and energy security — no government can drive the economic wellbeing of its citizens without these essential needs.

Education and health sectors must have achieved a fully literate society in which people are competent about taking care of their health in the interest of their lives, future and the country as a whole.

As things stand very few realise that, because of the global expectations of economic upswing, the arrival of an oil price in excess of $90 a barrel in a few months’ time will punish countries with economic growth of less than 7%.

Every $7 increase in oil price results in an increase in daily household costs. Since 2004 there have been seven such increases, resulting in an increase in daily cost of living per month.

The expenses of those in the lower income category therefore have to be financed with credit — and this includes basic essentials such as food.

Government, private sectors and communities must wake up — we have to rise now as one or we will fall apart — never to rise again.

Dr Allan Feldman is a senior lecturer in human resources and leadership at Unisa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership