Illustrative image | US President Donald Trump holds up a chart while speaking during a 'Make America Wealthy Again' trade announcement event in the Rose Garden at the White House on 2 April 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) | Arrow. (Graphic: Carkhe / iStock) | Johannesburg skyline. (Photo: Dean Hutton / Bloomberg via Getty Images) 
In the past couple of weeks, friends of mine who have come to Joburg for business or a meeting (or, in one brave case, to actually find a house to buy because they’re moving back) have all used the same phrase to describe the city.
They say, with some feeling, it’s like “a war zone”.
What they’re really pointing to is the visible damage to the city, the potholes that have been there for so long they have plants, trees and, in at least one case, a birthday party.
And, of course, treated, drinkable water just flows down the street because Joburg Water is such a mess.
At the same time, every minister and official and political person is now talking about the US tariffs.
And watch, in about five minutes after you read this, they’re going to start blaming the tariffs for our economic situation.
Actually, it’s really them.
On Monday night, the Mpact CEO Bruce Strong told me on The Money Show that in the six months to the end of June, their facility in Ekurhuleni had been without power for 18 days.
This is a 24-hour factory. It produces packaging and paper. Can you imagine workers sitting around with nothing to do for 54 whole shifts?
It’s the same in the Eastern Cape. For all of the tears being spilt around our car industry and the factories there, so many of their problems are really about local government.
But no, we will be told it’s the impact of the US tariffs.
And, of course, as we all know, almost every council outside the Western Cape just can’t manage their money.
It’s now at the point that National Treasury has in effect told the Joburg mayor, the ANC’s Dada Morero, that it will refuse to pay some of their national grant, simply because Morero has done nothing to sort out how the money is treated.
The coalition in Joburg is so fragile that Morero has not even appointed a new mayoral committee member for finance.
Now, some of the smaller parties are demanding that their candidate, Kabelo Gwamanda from Al Jama-ah, must get the job.
Just imagine this for a minute.
You have a group of parties, some of them with just one councillor, insisting that their person take over the finance role in the country’s biggest city.
Knowing all along that they are largely responsible for the situation we find ourselves in.
Last night, the ANC finally finished its long-postponed NEC meeting. One of its proclamations was that we are now in an “economic state of emergency”.
My first thought was that they had stolen the idea from Lesotho.
Obviously, you have to ask yourself: How did it happen? Does the ANC really understand the role that its economic policy, and our broken politics generally, has played in this?
Of course, you cannot blame one party. If you look at all of our neighbours, they have almost exactly the same unemployment rate as ours. Even Botswana, which so many kept saying was run so well for so long.
Over the past couple of days, plenty of good well-meaning people have made the same point: we need a national effort, we need to work together to fix our economy.
And, obviously, they’re right.
The main reason the tariffs, and everything else that is happening in the world (and it’s a long list at the moment), are having such a big impact on us is because we’re so weak.
And yet, strangely, our leaders seem, well, impotent in the face of it.
We need action, not a “National Dialogue”.
I can’t believe I have to say this out aloud. But the one thing we absolutely do NOT need to do is talk.
Now, I hate to have to say this, but do you believe there is any reason this is going to improve?
Me too.
Instead, what I think is going to happen is that our politicians, each chasing a smaller sliver of support, are going to shout and scream, and try to make it all about them.
My greatest fear is that, in fact, we will end up with a national government in the future that is a lot like Joburg’s now.
Of course, nothing is predestined. There can be a lot of change.
And, considering the nature of our society, there probably will be.
But when our politicians start to blame the US, or Trump, or whoever, for our economic situation, we must remind them who is really responsible.
It’s the politicians. Not us. DM