South Africa's daunting unemployment crisis has only worsened since the ANC pivoted from pro-growth policies at that fateful Polokwane conference in 2007.
What followed was a series of ANC-manufactured political crises whose fault lines became embedded in South Africa’s governance architecture, leading to state capture under Zuma and the coal cartels and construction mafias that have subsequently seized control of the state apparatus. However, the seeds for the breakdown in good governance were laid during the Mbeki era, where cadre deployment and “tenderpreneurship” led to chancellor house kickbacks, and the state machinery was steered to benefit the party over the citizenry.
For most of its 30-year rule, the ANC has enabled this criminalisation of the state for its own purposes, and the steady erosion of good governance has been a key pillar of this project. Poor governance has driven job losses and economic stagnation – it has eroded the capacity of the state to deliver the essentials for the economy to function.
The ongoing crisis in Ditsabotla Municipality in the North West best demonstrates this. Clover was a major employer in the municipality, which was home to the largest cheese factory in South Africa. However, the municipality failed to fulfil two critical tasks – reticulate water and energy and maintain roads – which forced Clover to relocate its operations. Hundreds of jobs were lost not because of broader macroeconomic challenges but because of poor governance and the inability of the municipality to fulfil the most basic parts of its mandate.
South Africa’s eight provinces have become laboratories of how governance affects job growth – and the data is clear for all to see: the more corrupt the ANC is in a province, the worse it is for jobs, and the one province not run by the ANC, the Western Cape has proven itself to be the engine of job growth.
The Western Cape has thrived not in spite of governance but because of it. By prioritising efficient service delivery, investing in critical infrastructure, and getting the basics right, the provincial government has laid the foundation for sustained economic