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A country with two faces

IT IS quite tricky to state which one is the authentic South Africa.

Is it the one plagued by corruption and hostility, where violence in the form of service protests is likely to engulf the entire country?
 
Or the country which is home to world class infrastructure, world class companies, world class securities exchange and has great economic potential?

South Africa has both features. This is the reason local and international investors have met recent troubling events in the country with mixed feelings.

Most believe that once the violence part is fixed, South Africa can go places. But the crisis of violence in South Africa is intensifying, and the end does not seem to be nigh.

Only this week, it emerged that South Africa has had to deal with 569 protest marches in the past three months in Gauteng alone, and that 122 of these protests have been violent.

I do not understand how the ANC, its president, Jacob Zuma, and other local councillors can miss an obvious pointer to the fact that they are facing violence of untold proportions.

When the apartheid government was about to be destroyed, it had to deal with violent protests in almost all the townships. I remember political commentators at the time saying that this was the sign that the apartheid junta would crumble sooner rather than later.

The same could no doubt befall the current government and the ANC.

The ruling party should learn from this, the more so when service delivery protests are taking on rather audacious tactics.

The government admitted this week that in one instance protestors used children as “human shields” in an effort to burn down a police station.

It is time for the ANC to wake up and smell the coffee. I would have sleepless nights if I were a government minister, councillor, municipal worker or high-ranking government official.

But strangely enough, government ministers still flaunt the wealth they gained illicitly as if nothing is happening.

That aside, South Africa is steaming ahead on the road to joining the world’s current four global trouble spots and economies that are on the edge.

These include Ukraine, Egypt, Thailand and Venezuela. I honestly believe that South Africa is set to be the fifth global flashpoint if nothing drastic happens.

This is due to the fact that in addition to facing widespread violence, the country’s economy is in decline.

This threatens South Africa’s world class infrastructure, world class companies and great economic potential.

The World Bank this week revised down the country’s economic outlook from 3.2% to 2.7%.

The rand has continued on a weaker trajectory against a basket of currencies over the past year.

The JSE All-share index only broke its eight-day losing stretch on Wednesday this week. The losing streak has been on the back of the breakdown of wage talks between the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union and platinum  mining companies.

Lastly, South African households came under tremendous pressure this week after the fuel price for the second time this year rose to an all-time high. This means prices of foodstuffs will skyrocket, as a petrol price hike has a multiplier effect.

As for now, South Africa’s above-mentioned features simply coexist, making it tricky to tell which is the real South Africa.

 - Fin24

*Mzwandile Jacks is an independent journalist. Opinions expressed are his own.

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