SA can indeed learn a lot from China (“Xi Jinping’s SA visit is chance to deepen collaboration, says Cyril Ramaphosa”, August 21). But I suspect the ANC will refuse to learn the correct lessons.
China’s economic miracle was not a result of increased state control, centralisation or socialism. It was entirely built on a freeing of the market, deregulation and support for big business. Its move away from state control of the economy is testimony to the powers of free market capitalism.
But the ANC is too blinded by its own ideology to take this lesson on board. Rather, its increased collaboration with China is blinkered by decades of Cold War propaganda, an obsessive hatred of the West and a desire for power. While China balances its political repression with economic freedom, the ANC wants to oppress South Africans on both fronts.
The president and governing party should learn from China’s pragmatism. It uses ideology to maintain dominance over its population, but when it comes to survival and economic prosperity it doesn’t play games. It trades with everyone, it minimises regulations to ensure unbridled entrepreneurship, and it allows the free market to produce the wealth that allows it to thrive.
The ANC should end this obsessive desire to collaborate with its Cold War allies and rather follow their example by trading with everyone on an equal footing while embracing a free market that will allow us to end unemployment and alleviate poverty, in the manner that Deng Xiaoping did for China.
Nor will China’s generous grant to help address SA’s energy crisis go very far (“China grants SA R670m for energy crisis”, August 22). Eskom is billions of rand in debt, with that debt rising by the day as the parastatal fails to keep the lights on, loses customers and continually brings us closer and closer to grid collapse.
While R670m might seem impressive to regular people, it is not even a drop in the ocean of what is needed to address Eskom’s predicament. Only fundamental free market reforms can solve our energy and unemployment crises.
So let’s not celebrate China’s aid as anything more than spare change being dropped in a tip jar. It will make no difference. It is little more than a propaganda tool to bring us ever closer to the wrong international partner.
Nicholas Woode-Smith
Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.