It’s the Economy, Stupid!
1 May 2019
Bill Clinton would not have succeeded in South Africa. His famous election slogan, focusing laser-like on the American economy, “It’s the economy, stupid,” resonated there.
Our economy is in a bad way. For a few days in March the country teetered on financial disaster because of ESKOM’S problems but many voters ignore the economy in the election. Will voters punish the ANC for their mismanagement?
The ANC got us into this situation by ruining the Manuel/Mbeki turnaround and supporting the Zuma profligacy (with Pravin Gordhan as Finance minister most of the time). What was not looted was wasted by grossly mismanaged government departments and state-owned enterprises, bringing little benefit to the poor, or even the ordinary salary and wage earner.
The government has not proposed anything in the campaign that remotely resembles fixing the economy. On the contrary, it continues with the nonsense about the National Democratic Revolution and radical economic transformation, lovingly using the ideas so popular in East Germany and elsewhere in the communist world after the Second World War.