Twenty-eight years later and the African National Congress’s (ANC) persistent incompetence seems to be leading South Africa to its demise. The severe negligence by the ANC has highlighted major issues that stem from a lack of governance in the country. For a party that was a beacon of hope for many, it is turning into a signal for change.
South Africa has seen a gradual decline since our country’s historical turn around in 1994. A big part of this gradual decline is due to persistent cases of incompetence on the ANC’s half. Our psyche in South Africa is significantly different as opposed to other countries. Where every action comes with a certain consequence, in South Africa the growing notion is that lawlessness is considered normal. Levy Ndou, a political analyst, highlights.
“In South Africa we have allowed lawlessness to prevail. That is why even though you’ll talk of a riot or a strike or a protest in South Africa, it is always associated with violence and the destruction to property. The question that you and I would ask is that has anything ever happened to people who are involved in the destruction of property in South Africa, nothing does happen. In Sri Lanka, for example, we would all actually talk about the presence of the police who will do something. The unfortunate situation is that in South Africa, you live in the presence of police who will do nothing to you. We’re watching the July unrest last year and we could see police standing and folding back their arms doing nothing.”
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Issues created by the ANC’s incompetence and country’s lack of governance
It is no secret we are living in scary times where we are facing issues coming from all angles. Although some issues may be out of our control, we can do something about a majority of them. A build-up of these issues are leading our country to unchartered territory. Never in our country’s history have we gotten to a point, so problem stricken.
Ndou stated that “We are in a very difficult situation in the sense that the same institutions that we have created are actually not working in our favour.”
One of the biggest issues that we face in our country is corruption, we see it happen from the higher levels all the way to the lower levels of power. We face issues with inefficient leaders, who can’t provide solutions to the problems that we are facing, such as astronomical hikes in the price of food and fuel. This is severely impacting the middle class , and even more so, the poor. Another major challenge is loadshedding and Eskom’s inability as a state-owned enterprise to keep our lights on.
All these issues could ultimately lead our country to its downfall. However, if the country finds a way to unify and work cohesively between the government and the public, we can overcome the majority of the issues we are facing.
