One Minute to Midnight: Can South Africa Avoid Crisis?

South Africa, as is often observed, is on the brink of some kind of existential crisis, at the proverbial one minute to midnight. Happily, we have, at numerous points in our history, confounded the naysayers and made significant progress. Despite achieving an extraordinary and relatively peaceful transition from Apartheid to a non-racial democracy, we seem to have lost the ability to make the reforms we need to ensure that all South Africans can thrive and prosper. All too often, we are left to contend with a government that is largely content to just muddle through problems, instead of taking decisive action.

As the world becomes increasingly uncertain and dangerous, this kind of strategic fuzziness has never been more foolhardy. The GNU now finds itself at an inflection point: does it choose to seize the opportunity to make a break with the stagnation and decline of the past decade, or does it continue to oversee a country in decline?

South Africa requires more than just pragmatic political compromise to deal with the demands of the here and now. It needs to implement the longer-term reforms necessary to address the deep structural impediments that are preventing domestic and international investment in the country. This means, amongst other things, that reforming education, liberalising the labour market, protecting property rights, sound fiscal policy, and world-class public infrastructure are non-negotiable.

If the GNU can start to make progress in making SA a safe and reliable place to do business, then we can start to become a beneficiary and not just a victim of the machinations of major international actors such as the USA and China. We still have many positive assets: deep capital markets, strong institutions, vast mineral wealth, and, with the right energy, labour, and investment policies, we can become an economic success story.

The question that remains as we shortly head towards the State of the Nation address is: do we have the political will to stop the clock ticking past midnight? Only time will tell.

- Paul Boughey, CEO of Resolve Communications

Resolve Communications is a leading communications agency specialising in strategic communications, reputation management, and public affairs. With expertise in setting the news agenda across media channels, we offer top-tier PR services in both Cape Town and Johannesburg, providing organisations with the tools to navigate government,?connect with key decision-makers,?manage crises, and engage stakeholders effectively.