Introduction
Recently I've been having a lot of debates regarding what's wrong with South Africa. Why it is failing as a governmental, economical and social system, and what is needed for this to change. So I've decided I'm going to tackle this issue here, on my blog. I'm going to be doing a series of articles on the various facets of what is wrong with South Africa, and what we need to change to correct it. This is my first article in this series.
This Article
Now before we can start talking about what is wrong with South Africa, we first need to establish that something is, indeed, wrong. After all, before you can tackle a problem, you first need to know that there is a problem in the first place. In order to establish this, we will be looking at several statistics that I believe are central to establishing what the state of a country is, namely Food Security, Quality of Life, Literacy Rates, Unemployment, and Crime Rates. Now these aren't all the factors, but they are the most important factors in my opinion. So let's get started.
Food Security
Food security refers to the cost, availibility and quality of food that is present in a country. It is an essential metric to a country for several reasons.
1. Food is absolutely essential for any being to continue existing. If you can't eat, you die.
2. Nutrition is a basic need. In otherwords people will seek to fulfil this need before looking at other needs they may have.
3. The quality with which, and level to which a person's need for sustainance has been met, influences their performance. Not just in the economical sense, but in the sociological sense as well.
Without food a country simply can't exist, much less be successful.
So why exactly is the state of food security in our country currently, and how does it compare to the state in which it was 21 years ago, in 1994? In 1995 the food security rating of South Africa was 200 units. When we look at the most recent survey - done in 2012 - it rates South Africa's food security at 110 units. This is a drop of 40% in the food security in South Africa. People have less food.
This is a clear problem. Not only is the population of South Africa increasing, but our food production is decreasing. What we see as a result is a reduction in the availibility of food, especially to those who aren't financially able to purchase imported foodstuffs. Food costs continue to increase exponentially, whilst the low earning populace of South Africa isn't earning proportionally more to compensate.
Quality of Life
Quality of life is a hard thing to measure, since everyone's definition is slightly different, and what some consider a good quality of life, is completely unacceptable to others. It is ultimately a very subjective thing. I do however have an excellent story that'll help explain what exactly has happened in South Africa since 1994.
I was in grade 5, and one afternoon after school I decided to sit down and talk with our gardener. He was a gentle old soul, around seventy years I believe. I asked him about his children and his family and how things have been recently. Of his own volition he told me a story that utterly shocked me. Now I can't recount the exact words of our conversation, this was 7 years ago, but I can still remember his arguments.
He had four children, and today has 19 grandchildren. During Apartheid - a system we hardly need any reminding of - he suffered as an individual, and as part of the larger demographic of the country. He was deprived of his basic human rights, and treated like an animal. So I was unbelievably surprised to hear him telling me that he wish the system was still governing the country today. Naturally I inquired as to why he would say such a thing if he was so oppressed during the that time. His answer shocked me even more than his desire to be back under Apartheid rule.
1. During Aparheid he had a home, as shabby and small as it was. Today he doesn't, the shack he can erect is regularly destroyed by the weather, or broken by other people who steal the plates to build their own shacks.
2. During Apartheid he always had a job, even if it didn't pay much and if it was far away from home. Today he regularly has to spend several weeks without a job, and the job he can get pays very little.
3. During Apartheid his children had a school to go to, it provided them with an education, even if it wasn't of the highest quality. Today his children have a school building, but no teachers, no textbooks, and are regularly beaten on the way to the building.
4. During Apartheid his children went to school, today they hang around in gangs, getting into trouble with the law and often coming home wounded because of street fights and turf wars.
5. During Apartheid his children went to bed hungry about once or twice a month, now they go to bed hungry once or twice a week.
Now I know this is just a personal account, but this underlines the central tendency in South Africa. What people got out of our change from Apartheid to the current system was a vote, and human rights, that's about it. Their day to day lives have actually worsened instead of improving, to the extent that some have started thinking back on Apartheid nostalgically. Now don't think that I am sayiing Apartheid wasn't a horrible system, what I'm saying is that our current system has failed to improve the lives of the people they fought with and for.
Literacy Rates
Literacy is a very contentious subject at the moment. Many of the structural flaws in the system are now beginning to surface, and showing us how broken our system really is.
In 1994, the average literacy rate in the country was around 70-75%. In the latest survay in 2010, the literacy rate had dropped to between 20-27%. What this means is that less than a quarter of the current working populace has completed an education equivalent to matric, and less than 50% have completed an education equivalent to grade 7. Even our president reflects this, having not completed primary school. What we are dealing with is a country that is uneducated and unequiped for the world it now has to face, and a government that has no intention of doing anything about it.
Unemployment
We have all heard the ANC bid that they will create more jobs if they are re-elected. That they will provide an environment where every household has the money it needs to look after itself. Well what has come of this promise? In 1995, when the first post 1994 survay on unemployement was done, unemployment stood at around 12% nationally. Following the 2012 survey unemployment has stood at between 30-40%, and is on the rise. Between a third and half of our country sit without jobs. And what's worse, is that for every 1 salary earned, on average 7-8 people are dependant on that salary. So for every job lost in this country, 8-9 people no longer have any money to subsist on.
What we are dealing with is a national crisis. People who previous had the means to at least continue to live, now no longer have that, and don't have any prospect of regaining what they have lost.
Crime Rate
Crime is something we hear about on the news daily, and read about online almost hourly. Our country is currently the country with the highest violent crime rates in the world. Yes, ladies and gentle, IN THE WORLD. More people are raped annually in South Africa, Our murder rate is 4 to five time higher than that of America, and 18 to 20 times that of Europe. Estimates state that nearly 40% of woman in South Africa are likely to be raped in their lifetime. That compared to just 8% for America. On average one woman is raped every 57 minutes in South Africa. Our household abuse rates are nearly double that of our closest 'competitor'.
Being a Police officer in South Africa is rated as the second most dangerous occupation in the world, second only to being a white farmer in South Africa (though to be fair, death rates per hundred thousand for white farmers is triple that of police officers in South Africa, but that's doesn't make it any better, it makes it worse). South Africa is leading the world in all the wrong theatres.
Conclusion
There is something truly wrong with this country when we supposedly have the world's best constitutions, and yet we have the world's highest violent crime rates by far, are rated as a class 6 country on the world Genocide watch list (just one category short of actually committing genocide), have an unemployment rate of up to 40%, and when the very people who fought against Apartheid are beginning to desire it's return because their lives were better then than they are now.
There is a serious problem when people desire to live as an oppressed people under an oppressive regime because their lives are worse off now in freedom than they were whilst being oppressed. This is something that is shocking, horrifying and completely detesting. There is something severely wrong with this country, not only because this is the reality we sit with today, but because most of us willfully ignore this reality. So many people say that all that matters is that we have freedom, have a vote and have human rights. What exactly does all that mean when the people are still starving to death?
The Hierarchy of Needs states that people will seek to fulfil primary needs, such as being fed and clothed, before even thinking about secondary or tertiary needs such as having a vote. Our country is in such a state that having a vote doesn't matter to the people, because they are dying of hunger and thirst. They have no dignity left because they have to beg for money, live of government subsidies that barely allow them to buy meal and bread.
This country needs to change and it needs to do so in a way that is sustainable and benefits everyone, not just a select few with the right family and friends. Something is wrong with this country, and it is time we acknowledge it.
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