How I Saved South Africa

The first thing I did was to declare a state of emergency. That freed me up to get things done in a hurry. I assembled a team of experts to provide me with reliable information and advice. I went on TV and radio to tell the nation what I was going to do to get the country working and on the path to prosperity.

The most pressing matter to deal with was the Covid 19 crisis. A Basic Income Grant of R1200 a month would be paid to all adults over 18. This grant would ensure that citizens could ride out the pandemic, whether they had work or not, and there would be less urgency to relax lockdown controls.

While the pandemic ran its course I fundamentally changed the financial system by establishing a State Bank that controlled a digital currency. All citizens were assisted with means to acquire a smart phone and receive training in how to use it. Data was made accessible and affordable for all.

I addressed the nation. Why is it that millions of people are unemployed when there is so much work to be done? Why do so many people live in shacks? Don’t we know how to build proper houses? Don’t we know how to make bricks and cement and roof tiles and everything else that goes into building a decent abode for a family? We have the know-how and an abundance of raw materials, so why don’t we get moving? But, you say, who is going to pay for it? You are going to pay for it. The State Bank will put up the money but you will have to pay it back with one percent interest plus bank charges over 30 years.

I explained to the people that the only way to create jobs for everyone was to have a massive project to kick-start the economy. That project would be to uplift millions of South Africans by setting in motion a building boom.

I stared into the eyes of the viewers. No-one deserves to live in a shack and share an outside toilet with fifty other people. What did all those living in poverty do to deserve such hardship? They cannot be blamed for being poor. The fault lies with the system and not the people. The present system acknowledges that it is wrong to have millions living in shacks, but their solution is to move shack dwellers into RDP houses. But why should an RDP house be good enough for some and not others? The average middle class person who lives in the suburbs will say that it would be impossible for them to raise a family in a house that is so basic. Minimum requirements would include a kitchen and living room, three bedrooms, a bathroom with shower and bath, and a separate toilet. And of course they would insist on an Internet connection as well as properly functioning Municipal services. To provide such accommodation for everyone must be the goal.

When the economists protested that a project of this scale was beyond the means of a country stuck in a deep recession and already drowning in debt I told them to free their minds from old ideas that had failed and were now obsolete. The guidelines and rules imposed on developing countries on how to run their economies were at the root of endemic poverty, unemployment and inequality. We would now design our own economic model. A fundamental shift was needed in how we conceptualised money, and valued the need to protect local industry.

I made it clear that we did not need permission from ratings agencies and foreign governments to undertake structural changes. Globalization and membership of the World Trade Organisation had been devastating. Cheap imports had destroyed much of our manufacturing sector resulting in massive job losses. I stipulated that all housing funded by the State Bank should be built with at least 90 percent locally manufactured construction materials. All homes were to be fitted with photovoltaic panels and solar water heaters, thereby boosting the local renewable energy industry.

The State Bank would provide citizens with the credit necessary to buy a new home from a private developer at a competitive price. To minimize corruption government would have no role in the awarding of contracts.

As the pandemic reached a plateau and began to subside, the 500000 unemployed graduates in the country were encouraged to enlist in a training program. This involved a crash course in basic social work, the theory behind the upliftment project and training in data collection. They were then employed to enrol recipients of the State Bank loan. Successful applicants and their family members had to be fully documented and made aware of the terms and conditions of the loan agreement they would be required to sign.

I saw the need to heavily subsidise the SABC in order to inform and educate the people and to assure them that, after decades of neglect, the under-privileged would now be treated with respect and provided with the means to enjoy an adequate standard of living. Through cooperation and hard work it would be possible to turn South Africa into a caring state that offered its citizens prosperity and security instead of poverty and unrest.

Once the business sector realised the extent to which the economy could flourish by creating millions of potential home owners with access to a mortgage their scepticism soon turned to enthusiasm. The demand for building materials resulted in major investment in mining and manufacturing.

The building boom led to the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs and a shortage of skilled and semi-skilled labour. Further work opportunities were created with the establishment of many more trade schools and TVET Colleges throughout the country to cope with this skills shortage.

As the economy revived and people found employment I emphasised the importance of building social cohesion. English and an African language were made mandatory Matric subjects for all children to encourage mutual respect and understanding between the races. Other changes to the education system included the introduction of the Montessori Method for the first five years of schooling, thereby providing a solid foundation for self-reliance and critical thinking. Another important intervention was the introduction of Driving as a compulsory subject for Grades 11 and 12. This resulted in a new culture of competent and responsible behaviour on the roads and led to a drastic reduction in accidents.

Now, after the first decade of the new dispensation, the country has been transformed. By treating the poor with respect and offering them a chance of leading a dignified and prosperous existence crime has decreased dramatically and there is a new sense of self-respect and social responsibility in the land.

In conclusion I would like to stress that the key to our ability to turn the country around lay in the bold steps we took in giving the poor access to credit through the establishment of the State Bank.  By monetizing debt in this way we ensured that the intended recipients of funds, the people living in poverty, received assistance directly and not via gate-keeping commercial banks and financial institutions. The billions of rands of private sector capital were, after lying dormant for so many years, finally put to good use and invested in the real economy. Big, medium and small enterprises were now able to compete for the business of improving living conditions and uplifting society, while at the same time generating wealth for these investors and entrepreneurs. By treating poverty as an asset with the potential to drive economic growth we have transformed South Africa and inspired many other countries to follow our example and take charge of their own destinies.

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