SA needs swift decision-making to deal with crises as 2024 general elections approach

POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE by Theo Venter

Despite President Cyril Ramaphosa's relatively positive State of the Nation Address (SONA) and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's mildly optimistic Budget Speech in February, there is an overall sense that South Africa remains in challenging times.

In a previous column (see FW, 17 February 2023), I made suggestions on how we could address the confidence deficit in the country. However, several developments since then have taken us deeper into troubled waters.

As expected, the SONA was dominated by talk of Eskom, but Ramaphosa declaring the energy crisis to be a state of disaster was surprising. The budget was also dominated by Eskom, as well as proposals on how to get South Africa out of the power crisis.

And then André de Ruyter was interviewed about, inter alia, the alleged corruption at Eskom and how politicians viewed the matter.

The ANC has the 2024 elections in its sights, but the party is making a serious miscalculation if it thinks loadshedding will be over by May next year.

It is generally accepted by experts that the time frame for solving the load-shedding crisis is two years, but in reality it is more like five years.

A 'POLYCRISIS'

Several other issues have contributed to the negative situation we now find ourselves in. These include global developments such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the worldwide energy crisis.