State Of The Notion

No, that is not a spelling error in my title. After reading this you'll know why:) Enjoy:



And so it was, Msholozi, our president, Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma sauntered down the aisle of the erm...parliament building in Cape Town to give his state of the nation address to the sounds of the Swati praise poet reciting Jay-Z’s praises. Once stood at the podium and after a short applause right on cue from the rent-a-crowd employees, Zuma began his speech. He started off with a rather lengthy shout out to all the dignitaries in attendance. Then he went on to FINALLY acknowledge struggle heroes who weren’t part of the ANC. A nice touch.

President Zuma then went on to mention how government has “made progress” in certain key areas such as education and health since last year’s SONA. He also acknowledged the fact that unemployment and poverty remained high and then went on to say some words in Zulu which neither myself nor Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel could understand (made very clear by the strain on his face).

On the topic of unemployment, Msholozi also pointed out that since the 70’s apartheid created structural unemployment, the lowest that the South African unemployment rate has been is 20%. To this end, he mentioned that under his regime in the past year or two the unemployment rate has fallen from a staggering 25% to an, uhm...more acceptable 23.9%...

It was pretty much at this point that I stopped my note taking, because based on the things he started saying I could envisage the rest of his speech. I wasn’t far off. The president went on about the things his government planned to achieve, citing the 20-year National Development Plan. The government wants to improve service delivery in housing, they want to improve the health system, they want to build universities in Mpumalanga and the North West, etc. He also dropped a couple of numbers starting with the big “B” saying that funds had been approved/allocated to making these things happen. All the things people want to hear. All those sweet, wonderful pipe dreams and notions we’ve been fed for years.

So, as far as delivering the state of the notion address, Zuma did just that. All he did was talk about the notion of a better South Africa where everyone lives a better life, together in harmony – because “together, we can do more”. No “how”, no “when”, no “where”, and no “who” – only the “what”. His speech answered none of these basic questions of goal setting. This, Mr President, is not how one sets SMART goals, and as we all know, if your goals are not SMART, you are only setting yourself up for failure.

I don’t expect our president to go into too much detail when it comes to his plans. He doesn’t need to tell me which government official in the Bushbuckridge Municipality will have R18 500 per month set out to him to pay the cleaners in his school district. What I DO expect is for him to make it very clear in his speech WHO will be held accountable for ensuring that the promised universities in Mpumalanga and the North West get built. Is it the minister of higher education, or maybe his deputy? Perhaps even the MEC’s of those provinces – who the hell knows? I don’t!

I wish he’d give the nation a 2-year plan. Yes, the 20-year plan is all good and well, but you and I both know that if he gets re-elected to the presidency, he won’t achieve 95% of the notions he’s pointed out and HE won’t be around to be held accountable for those failures. I wish he would lead from the front with practical steps to achieving the rhetoric in so many an ANC leaders’ public statements in the past two decades to clearly outline HOW we will make these things a reality. As a country South Africa is all too brilliant at dreaming big dreams for our future, what we need to realise is that in between right now and tomorrow we need to put in the effort and work to bring our dreams to bear.

In my view, the president needs to make some bold moves. I mean the most “controversial” part of this SONA was the statement about how the willing buyer willing seller policy is not working as effectively as needs to be for land redistribution to be at the required pace. I wish he would’ve stepped out on a ledge with other policies. I wish he’d said to the nation that he has plans to make it law that government ministers HAVE to use government hospitals and their children have to attend government schools. If you think about it, these suggestions aren’t really that far out there, I mean, the president of the country doesn’t reside in Europe. Why then should the minister of health peruse private hospitals? Why should the minister of basic education send her kids to private schools? It makes no sense at all and if nothing else, it would raise awareness amongst political ranks as to the REAL state of our nation. After all, you can’t see problems you don’t have, and if you can’t see something, how on earth can you ever expect to fix it?

I, personally, am tired of dreams and what if’s. I have had enough of imagining what life in Mandela’s new South Africa COULD be like. Zuma was right about one thing though, the government can’t do it alone – and they shouldn’t have to. I just count myself fortunate that I am in a position to do something about it for myself. I hope that when the rest of South Africa gets a chance to do something about our future at the next election they do. If there’s one lesson our government has taught us, no-one is going to place the perfect life in your lap, on some level or another you have to make it happen.