BY DAVID DALLING

Lets face it. South Africa is suffering from an acute case of schizophrenia.

There is so much happening that is good and praiseworthy, yet on the flipside of the coin there is inscribed a litany of negative and blameworthy events, detracting from both the image and the living standards in our country for all our people.

Only a few weeks ago, Leslie Maasdorp was quoted in the influential Wall Street Journal as follows......,

"Over the past decade, SA implemented fiscal and structural reforms that are a case study in sound economic management for developing as well as developed countries............ Mr Manuel once again carefully balanced policies that promote growth and alleviate poverty. Though the government revised down the growth outlook for 2008 to 4% from 4.5% to take account of the global slowdown and the impact of electricity rationing, the outlook looks more favourable than it has been in several decades."

Overhauling Apartheid's expansionary budget policy the government fast cut the deficit , overhauled the tax system and shifted expenditure from defence to education health and welfare."......

"At the same time SA reduced its debt and hence its debt service costs. This freed up money to fund public services."

John Battersby, spokesperson for the International Marketing Council of SA has been quoted as writing........

"SA has weathered a change in Party leadership which marks the first time that a governing Party in Africa has removed a serving leader in a free vote.The change of Party leadership sends a clear signal to the rest of Africa and the world that SA will observe both the letter and the spirit of term limitation and leadership renewal"

He commented further,....."Government has moved swiftly to compile and implement a comprehensive response to the electricity crisis including an emergency period for outages, a four month period of rationing, and a two year energy conservation period."

Meanwhile, other sources of power, including nuclear, hydro-electric, gas, coal and wind , are being harnessed urgently to overcome the shortage and build for the future.

Battersby comments lastly,.... "The underlying fundamentals of the economy are sound and the economy has weathered the international credit crisis and volatile equity markets better than most. "

Tony Heard, former editir of the Cape Times, and currently an advisor in the office of the Presidency, after commenting favourably on the growth of the economy, tangendentally wrote,......"Tourism continues to attract increasing millions each year, drawn inter alia by our legendary natural beauty, our vibrancy as a nation and exquisite wildlife areas."

True this is, but if we are honest we cannot but admit that the idyllic image of the Mandela inspired rainbow nation has faded badly.

The electricity crisis which has threatened to implode the growth of our economy, is a direct result of both government executive incompetence and indifference, as also the lack of planning of the power generating monopoly, Eskom. President Mbeki has apologized to the nation and has accepted Cabinet collective responsibility, yet no-one has resigned. No-one has been censured, rendering both his apology and acceptance of collective responsibility totally meaningless. This is no doubt deliberate.On the contrary the senior management of Eskom were rewarded for their manifest failuresby receiving their usual multi million rand bonuses.

On top of this Eskom, apparently with government backing has demanded a price increase of some 60% and has arrogantly told the independent regulator that if not approved immediately, it will be back dated to 1st April, thus furthering the pain suffered by all citizens, which has been caused by the maladministration of the electricity facilty by both the Eskom management and the ANC government.

To cap all this South Africans continue to live with an excessively high crime rate ( 50 murders per day, 365 days p.a. ), a failing school education system, the continuation of the asanine admiinistration of our health care system by a Minister derided by all except the President.

South Africa's limp wristed response to Zimbabwe's criminally tyrannical leadership of that hapless and tortured country to the north of us is yet another good reason for strong condemnation.

The results are sobering to say the least. Skilled South Africans are by the thousands voting with their feet. Perhaps just over 1 million such people have in the past two years found greater security, better jobs, a warmer welcome in such countries as the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the like. No amount of "Please come home" campaigns will bring people back while families feel unsafe in their homes, or lack cofidence in their future and that of their children due to the skewed application of affirmative action.

Unless this unfairly applied racialistic policy is drastically amended,...unless violent crime is decisively defeated, more and more educated people will quietly leave, never to return to live. Delivery to the masses of quality services, of health care, of education will go from bad to worse, and the damage will take decades to repair.

But in all this lies a clear warning to the ANC. The people are not fools. They see the newly acquired amazing wealth of the favoured few via cozy BEE deals. They suffer from crime just like all of us. They note the apparent toleration of corruption, - the venal and unpunished ANC Parliamentarians who tried to defraud Parliament and the taxpayers via Travelgate.

Very recently, Macassar, a mixed black/coloured ward on the outskirts of Cape Town, including in its area an enclave of some 2500 wealthy white voters was the scene of a municipal by election. In 2005, the DA won the Ward by polling 2500 votes, with the ANC coming in secondwith some 1500 votes, and the newly formed Independent Democrats led by the feisty Patricia De Lille trailing in third position with some 1000 votes.

This time around the DA dropped some 200 votes to come in second, the ANC lost some 700 votes to drop to a poor third and the ID won the Ward by polling over 2500 votes, an improvement of some 1500 votes.

The warning is this: If the ANC continue to use their energies to enrich themselves and their friends, rather than uplift the entire country,.. if the ANC led government continues to fail to to provide security against crime to ordinary families, if the ANC's policies continue to make skilled minorities feel unwanted in their own country, whether it be in the workplace or on the sportsfields, these people will drain away and leave the country. Service delivery will suffer even further, and the ANC will eventually lose the loyalty of even its strongest supporters.

This is no threat, but merely an informed prediction.

It is time to get back to the policies and attitudes of Nelson Mandela. It is time to re-create the "Rainbow Nation"'

As a Nationalist Prime Minister once said, "The alternative is too ghastly to contemplate".

David Dalling is a former ANC Member of Parliament of SA.

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