Graphic: John McCann/M&G
“Waves of creative destruction” is how economist Joseph Schumpeter once described the growth of capitalist economies. What underlies his comments is the awareness that growth involves commitment, discomfort and radical change.
It was the radical changes that Lee Kuan Yew introduced in 1959 when he became president of Singapore that boosted his country’s fortunes. He cracked down on corruption, overhauled the civil service and invested heavily in education and skills training. When compared with Johannesburg, which at that time, due to its mineral assets, was wealthier, today we can see the results of Yew’s efficient governance.
Within a generation Singapore transformed from a developing world to a first world economy, while Johannesburg is wallowing in the deepening mire of inner-city squalor and growing service delivery problems. Although its historical socio-political legacy brings an added layer of complexity to Johannesburg’s trajectory, it is important to note the role of effective governance in a nation’s growth and sustainability.
So, when we look at latter-day South Africa, what we see are current and approaching disasters. Load-shedding is a disaster. Failing public transport is a disaster. Political infighting is a disaster. Pervasive corruption is a disaster. Besides the damaging effect on daily life, economic and otherwise, it also signals to potential investors that South Africa is unable to ensure an enabling investor environment. This significantly undermines economic opportunities and is a significant hurdle to lift GDP growth to even above 1% for the current fiscal year.
South Africa’s many issues reaffirm that we live in a disaster-prone country. On any given day we are assailed by disasters, be they natural, such as droughts, floods and wildfires, or human-made, such as corruption, maladministration, high unemployment and poor service delivery.
And because we are integrally connected to the rest of the world, we must add the complications of Donald Trump’s presidency in the US. Already we’ve seen the results of this — the executive orders to terminate health aid to South Africa and the possible removal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act preferential trade agreement between the US and South Africa.
With the increasing stress that our disasters heap on us, it’s understandable why many believe we’re living in the age of kali yuga (a term from Hindu mythology referring to when everything unravels and there is increasing social unease and breakdown).
From the constant bickering in our government of national unity, it seems that one of the biggest problems facing us is lack of nationhood; a collective “we” feeling. This is both at citizen and public official level. The elections in 2024 that gave us the unity government might have affirmed our democracy but did they affirm our “unity”?
We constantly undermine each other, which exacerbates our problems. A case in point is AfriForum presenting their perspective of the Expropriation Act to Trump and provoking a backlash that will potentially negatively affect all South Africans.
Decades of living with uncertainty caused by various socio-economic and political problems has harmed the South African psyche. These have been constant since 1994 and have undoubtedly made many South Africans jittery, driving many to seek stability elsewhere in the world. And for those who remain, many view government initiatives with suspicion and cynicism.
But it doesn’t matter where we migrate to, having to live with uncertainty, complexity and more frequently occurring disasters is the new normal, globally. Author Wolfgang Grulke refers to current times as the “Era of Chaos” and what makes it more challenging is that we cannot really learn from the past. Author Nassim Taleb refers to trying to learn from the past as “retrospective distortion” because a completely different set of societal factors prevailed then.
If disasters, natural or human-made, form the new normal, then we have to learn how to mitigate them. Throughout our human history we have encountered disasters in various forms and intensities. When we shift our focus to a deeper understanding of disasters, we begin to realise that, contrary to conventional beliefs, disasters are not an end in themselves with only destructive outcomes, but that there are valuable lessons for us to acquire. In the natural world, disasters are part of nature’s cycles of rejuvenation and resilience.
And herein lies the problem — how do we, as a nation, learn from our disasters and convert these lessons into strengths? What can we learn from other countries, such as Singapore and South Korea, who have developed successful economies despite having similar problems to ours some years ago?
With all disasters, we need to find the inflection points that precipitated the disaster, take the lesson and be willing to self-correct. Unless we critically reflect on our actions, disasters will continue raining upon us. Futurist Alvin Toffler (author of Future Shock) summed it up eloquently when he wrote, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” Managing disasters requires us to re-evaluate how we live, how we relate to other sentient beings and how we consume on the planet.
What is reassuring is that humans are intelligent, adaptable, dextrous and capable, but what we often lack is the consciousness to show more empathy, emotional intelligence and the willingness to act.
This begins with inner transformation, similar to what the group of Swedish scientists who developed the Inner Development Goals framework in May 2021 advocated to support the UN sustainable development goals. Their aim was simple — to create a process starting with self-awareness (being), then moving towards action. The rationale was that humans will only move intentionally once there’s been an ontological shift, that is, how they see themselves in relation to their environment.
We live in relationships — humans to humans and humans to nature — all integrally linked to each other. To manage disasters more effectively, we need to move beyond blaming and towards more empathetic, collective responsibility. Seeing disasters holistically and coming up with generative solutions through collective commitment might be the only glimmer of hope in our disaster-prone world.
Rudi Kimmie is director of the Aerotropolis Institute Africa at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He writes in his personal capacity.