THE self-inflicted damage to the economy occasioned by the extraordinary and dangerous decision by the president to play Russian roulette with the leadership stability at our globally respected Treasury has exposed a nagging fear and concern over the calibre of leadership at the highest level of government in the past decade.
The damage to the economy was immediate and deep, and it will take a long time and much effort to correct.
The biggest casualty was the confidence and trust of the investing community. There is now considerable doubt over our ability to make rational decisions, at a time when all of the rating agencies and the World Bank have raised serious concerns over the implementation of policies to stimulate growth.
We have experienced a crisis of Gramscian proportions that has confirmed long-held suspicions that there is a glaring leadership gap at the political level.
We all know that managing a state is a complex and challenging business. We also know that mistakes will be made, but that mitigating the damage is usually possible. But we never imagined that this weakness would expose us to reckless decisions that would have a cataclysmic effect on our economy and endanger future growth prospects.
One of the key benefits of democracy is that it provides the freedom of thought and speech that finds expression in new ideas about how to create conditions for peace, growth and prosperity. It is this diversity of opinions and contestation that creates a fertile ground for visionary leadership to emerge. In such a complex context, the challenge is to listen to those who are governed and develop strategies and programmes that adequately meet their expressed needs.
For the majority of South Africans the African National Congress (ANC) occupied that space very successfully during the liberation struggle years and in the beginning of the democratic era. The agency for this success derives from a few factors including positioning itself as a social movement against the apartheid government; its ability to translate that leadership into electoral success after 1994 on the basis of promises of service delivery; and exploiting the iconic status of former president Nelson Mandela.
But the reality we face is that there is a deep sense of anger against the state for failing to deliver social services in an efficient manner.
What the country and the investment community require is a leadership that can spell out an overarching and compelling shared set of strategies that can achieve economic growth by focusing attention on agreed priorities. Unless this is achieved, we face the prospect of serious social instability in the near future given the growing debt pressure on so many households.
The biggest constraint SA has faced since the publication of the National Development Plan (NDP) is the ideological and policy gridlock within the tripartite alliance, which has consistently prevented the ANC from becoming an effective party in government and rendered it hesitant to pursue bold and rational policies. The failure to arrive at an overarching vision and strategy for shared economic growth is a glaring example.
The NDP vision for 2030 sees a major role for small business and the service industry in driving inclusive growth. The New Growth Path, on the other hand, focuses on growing exports and manufacturing, notwithstanding the soft global demand and weak capital formation. Yet the jobs that would theoretically be created by this strategy require skills that the majority of job seekers do not have.
Our goal for 2016 should be to abandon narrow self-interest and commit to reaching consensus on a strategy to drive economic growth and create jobs.
• Motsohi is a strategy consultant
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