The whole world watched the smackdown televised infotainment in the Oval Office last Wednesday and now knows for sure that:

• SA is a dangerous place for its whole population, not only white farmers.
• Criminality is rampant in SA — especially on the Cape Flats, where gangsters rule the roost.
• The murder rate in SA is unacceptably high, but crime goes unaddressed by the underresourced and ill-trained police.
• All efforts to redress the legacy of unfair discrimination have largely failed, creating instead more discrimination Elon Musk experiences as unfair.
• Jobs are in short supply in SA due to a paucity of new investment and a failure to nurture existing investments.

Research and polling by the Institute of Race Relations and the Social Research Foundation confirm that the major preoccupation of most South Africans is the parlous state of the economy, which leads to the lack of new jobs.

The government of national unity (GNU) was formed in July 2024 to create jobs, but not a single piece of legislation nor any effective policy changes have emerged from it. Instead, a disputed budget is all the GNU has to show for its initial efforts in government. There appears to be no urgency to reform economic policy, address crime and corruption and create the longed for (but ever diminishing) jobs.

It is the GNU’s duty to proactively address the desire of the people to have jobs, dignity and a better life.

In an open, accountable and responsive dispensation it is not too much to ask of government that secure peace, sustainable progress and shared prosperity be devised by those in office, even if it means abandoning long-cherished but unworkable ideology, rolling up sleeves on safety, and upholding the rule of law in a way that attracts investors and tourists to our shores.

Paul Hoffman
Director, Accountability Now