Is SA at a Cross-Roads?

Depending on which South African media you interact with, you are probably in no doubt that South Africa has reached some kind of a cross roads. Many key sectors of the South African society seem to be hit with one form of crisis, or another: education, look at the recent poor national senior certificate examination results; high unemployment rate, the last reported figure put unemployment at 24.5%; high HIV/AIDS prevalence, estimated at around 11% of the total population; lack of adequate housing, informal settlements are a common sight around the country. But perhaps one of government’s biggest headaches is the looming energy crisis due to the growing lack of electricity-production capacity at Eskom. Electricity is the corner-stone of any functioning economy, all infrastructure and services rely on the availability of electricity. Energy therefore is of great strategic importance for South Africa. To make matters worse, the state-owned national energy provider, Eskom is proposing significant price hikes, prices that will certainly hurt the pockets of the poor. Indeed the challenges facing President Zuma and his government over the next four years are many and daunting. South Africa therefore is at a cross roads in a sense that critical strategies need to be put in place or many fear, myself included, that South Africa may be moving towards a disaster.

Energy is of strategic importance

If President Zuma were to succeed in tackling most of the challenges facing his government, and failed to deliver a sound solution to the energy problem and bring order at Eskom, he and his government would probably not receive many plaudits. On the other hand, were President Zuma to resolve the Eskom problem and avert the looming energy disaster and yet fail to deliver on many of the other challenges facing his government, perhaps he would receive some praise. The challenge therefore, is to successfully tackle as many of the challenges as possible, as well as the energy problem, then I think the President and his government would receive truly high praise. Delivering and implementing a clear plan on education, employment, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and on top of that improve Eskom’s ability to deliver enough electricity without any threat of future blackouts, would  ensure that (I say this with no fear of any contradiction) President Zuma is remembered by future generations as a truly great statesman.