I have been doing rounds of public speaking this year on global leadership and the direct and often indirect impact of their actions on our finances. I was intrigued over the past 2 weeks about Floyd Shivambu’s move out of the EFF that he helped create, and into the MK party under Zuma. This left Julias Malema sad at first, after which that sadness turned to anger and threats on the public stage. Not untypical Juju style rhetoric. Not a week later and Floyd Shivambu and Jacob Zuma are sitting side by side on a teleconference interview discussing the way forward for Floyd and the MK party. Fascinating stuff.
I made a remark earlier in the year during one of my talks, that the EFF had effectively been given a mortal wound after their failure at the elections. I said that largely the party was dying out. Bold prediction 2 months ago. Yet here we are, and Floyd has walked away.
Counting the cost and what this means:
It’s hard to know exactly what the MK stands for. Both their manifesto and recent public comments are vague at best. Presumably it’s an “African socialist liberal” party. It amazes me that there is a sense that people still need to be liberated 30 years after democracy and African rule.
The cost to the average South African, comes in the forms of maladministration, reputational damage, irresponsible promises made to the public, like National Health Insurance, which is almost impossible to implement in its current form. This forms a burden for the taxpayers who are consistently squeezed to try and make these political promises and fixes a reality.
In the not-too-distant past, Trever Manual and Thabo Mbeki knew that you had to make money to spend money. That worked well in relation to the balancing act between public and private sectors. We hope for a return to this sober-minded policy and all the hopes that it represented for South Africa under the right leadership. As for the MK, I’m not so sure that this would be their modus operandi.
