Slowly but surely, everything is getting more expensive. Who do we have to blame?
A government with no economic or coherent economic plan over the past 30 years’ rule. If you know of such an economic plan, then let us all know.
Now let’s not be over-critical. There are many millions of voters who voted for the government. They wanted this government in power.
Think of the benefits:
They’ve been given new road name changes. Cities have changed their names. Towns have changed their names. There have been affirmative action, BEE policies put in place. Labour laws have become more stringent. Cigarettes are far cheaper with illicit trade. Homes have been built. Solar panels have been installed. So that’s a viewpoint we mustn’t underestimate, and we mustn’t be overcritical, must we? Should we?
A better life for all.
But let’s get down to brass tacks.
While the focus remains on the symbolic—the names of streets and the shifting of labels—the actual value of the country is being eroded. To understand the “Better Life for All” slogan, one must look at the cold math of the National Capital Stock.
Capital Stock = National Infrastructure + Productive Machinery + Intangible Assets + Biological Resources + Inventories
Don’t blank out this economic formula. It is critical to understanding any country’s wealth and health.
The reality is that for three decades, capital has been consumed rather than formed. The National Infrastructure—the power stations and the rail network—represents the skeleton of the country. Capital stock includes every productive asset in the country including buildings, machinery, state companies and much more.
The “depreciation” (the rot, the lack of maintenance, and the theft) has outpaced investment. When the drain is larger than the tap, the bathtub eventually runs dry.
Official announcements claim inflation is “contained.” Yet, for anyone buying a bag of maize meal or paying an electricity bill, the “official” figure is a fiction.
By keeping interest rates “artificially low” relative to the actual cost of survival, the value of every Rand saved is systematically eroded. It is a hidden tax on the productive individuals who still manage to generate value.
There is constant talk of “job creation” while unemployment sits above 30%. But the brass tack is this: jobs cannot be created without Productive Machinery, and machinery cannot run without a working power grid or a functioning rail network to move goods to the coast.
One can change every road name in the country, but if the trucks cannot drive on those roads because the “National Infrastructure” has been swindled, the “better life for all” remains nothing more than a slogan on a fading poster. The country has spent 30 years treating its capital stock like a personal piggy bank. Now, the piggy bank is empty, the name on the front has changed, and the “better life” is a bill that can no longer be paid.
It is painful to see this stage being reached in a country that was once a leader in Africa — a country with military prowess beyond compare, a country that built legendary weapons to defend itself, a country that produced agriculture of the highest quality — and still does — and a country whose currency once stood strong against the dollar. A country that built the infrastructure we still rely on today: schools, hospitals, clinics, libraries — virtually everything. But this is what happens when leadership becomes morally bankrupt, and when honesty, respect, justice, and responsibility stop being guiding principles.
