The theme of President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation speech was that South Africa is better than it was in 1994. Most people would agree that our country is indeed a better place than it was then.
What is not agreed is whether South Africa is worse than it could have been if the Zuma government and its predecessors had followed other policies. Far more importantly, will the country be better off or worse than it could be, if the ANC remains in power?
Sometimes one hears people saying that things were better in the old days. Even some black people say the same thing. Be assured that it is not so. Quite apart from human dignity questions flowing from our Bill of Rights, inter-racial respect and tolerance as well as the national pride we feel, there has been progress:
Our gold and foreign exchange reserves have increased from US$3 billion to US$50 billion;
Our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased from US$136 billion in 1994 to US$400 billion now;
We have 13.7 million registered as taxpayers; in 1994 there were 1.7 million;