STRATEGIC FAILURE OR JUST PURE INEPTNESS?
STRATEGIC FAILURE OR JUST PURE INEPTNESS?
Many are questioning the monumental failure of the South African government regarding the uncontrolled anarchy, looting and criminality that recently shook the country and its increasingly inept parliament to its foundations.
South Africa has, however, a record of consistent failure by its self-righteous government, so none of what happened ought to be a surprise to any thinking person. Many more discussions and investigations will no doubt be held on what went wrong during the latest days of rampant anarchy, chaos, and criminality. Many will also question why the government claimed it didn’t know what was coming or who was to blame for what unfolded.
Our gigantic parliament and many of the other so-called political leaders and appointees whose salaries we pay took their eyes off the ball—a very long time ago, while others kept their eyes firmly on the nation’s cash register. For fear of sounding like a stuck record, the answer to what unfolded lies in the fact that South Africa has no realistic or determined National Strategy, nor is there a National Security Strategy to support it. If these critical strategies indeed exist, then they are feeble, not actioned, and disconnected with reality. The aim of a National Strategy is to envisage where a country wishes to position itself on the domestic, regional, continental, and international stages.
Simplistically put, it sets the trajectory of where we want to go as a country, in a unified manner and that is beneficial to all citizens. In turn, the National Security Strategy (intelligence, law enforcement, and defence) guides (intelligence), protects (law enforcement) and defends (armed forces) the National Strategy. The NSS, along with other government department strategies ought to be aligned and synchronised to realise the National Strategy. Having such strategies but being unable to implement them reflects a lack of both political courage and will, along with non-existent leadership. Underpinning these critical strategies and policies, are those of governance, education, and the economy.
Currently, governance is almost non-existent, and in many areas, has completely failed. Education? Well that too is aimed at dumbing down everyone who passes through our ‘revolutionary’ system. With anti-business policies, and an ever-dwindling economy where almost half the adult population live on approx. R 1 200 a month, and with youth unemployment estimated to be around a staggering 70 percent, one can ask if we even have an economic strategy. What we do have are economic policies aimed at bankrupting the country, continually adding new taxes, and making us a world leader in poverty and unemployment. It is estimated that less than 30 percent of middle-class South Africans are positive about the country’s future, and approximately 27 percent at looking at options to emigrate.
And these are the folks that actually drive the economy—not the parliamentarians who devise new policies to make more money for themselves. Some may argue that we are just ‘another African country’, and others may argue that to progress, we need to experience pain. (Those who advocate the latter make sure they feel no pain). But this also assumes these strategies have even been considered, let alone developed—and in the unlikely event that they exist, are frequently reviewed, and adjusted to circumstances.
In view of the above, it becomes clear that South Africa has no realistic strategy, thus making the rules and principles of our Constitution that set out how the state should be governed somewhat redundant. The Constitution also sets out the rights of everyone which must be respected by the state and therefore establishes the relationship between the government and the people. It seems that ‘strategy’ and ‘the Constitution’ are soundbytes but not actioned. It was therefore obvious that it was only a matter of time before anger, frustration and numbers began to count against the state.
The hungry, impoverished, and unemployed only needed a spark to set them off. Recent events gave them that spark. Of course, the growing feeling of discontent is further resultant in the government and its allies propagating a false and hateful narrative aimed at minorities in the country to deflect from their failures. However, if one assumes these strategies do indeed exist as realistic, coherent, and sustainable strategies, they need to be driven and implemented with decisive and strong leadership—another essential that appears to be sorely lacking.
Our so-called leaders neither act nor talk like leaders. However, if the strategic building blocks required for a successful state are non-existent, then it can be argued that there wasn’t a strategic failure as a non-existent strategy cannot fail. In my view, the answer lies in strategic ineptness—and this is driving us towards state failure.