After the Bell: New reform tracker helps answer the question, 'Will SA be okay?'

As someone who identifies as a “journalist” and watches everything that happens as much as I can, I’m often asked certain questions by people I bump into, or audiences I speak in front of.

The questions are wide-ranging, from “who should I vote for” to “should I emigrate”, to “will our economy start to grow now that…” I could go on.

But in reality, they’re the same question. Everyone who asks me one of those questions is asking something much more fundamental.

They’re asking, really: “Will South Africa be okay?”

It was a question summed up incredibly well by my old journalistic colleague and friend, Jan-Jan Joubert. He wrote a very well-researched answer and published it as a book. 

There is something almost peculiar to the South African middle class about this question. I don’t think people in New Zealand or, dare I say it this particular Monday, Australia ask themselves this.

Or people in the UK or Spain — despite the fact that in both those countries there are serious economic and political problems.

But, considering the era of State Capture we have come from, I think it’s fully understandable.

I mean, look around. In Johannesburg, the mayor blames the DA for the state of the city while he himself has not appointed a finance head, or someone to actually manage the roads. That pothole that you see twice a day? There is actually no one in charge of fixing that right now.

Our economy is still growing incredibly slowly, and it seems that people are putting more energy into arguing about the definition of employment than actually making changes that will result in more jobs.

Just this weekend we saw a liar, someone who was central to the Guptas, who has been able to use the Hawks to have his ex-wife literally locked up in jail, still mouthing off about the state of the ANC? 

Malusi Gigaba should be in court. Not being given interview after interview as the chairperson of a portfolio committee in Parliament.

But as we all know, there are virtually no Zondo prosecutions. And institutions such as Transnet are still battling to recover from State Capture.

Progress

However, it’s important to note that there is progress. 

Finally, we are getting a live report card to help us answer the question: “Will South Africa be okay?”

Last week, I was asked to be MC at the two launches of the Business Leadership South Africa Reform Tracker.

It has a rather grand title. But, unlike so many other names in the economic and political space, it does what it says on the tin.

It is tracking our reforms. Not quite minute by minute, but not far off.

Now, when I was at school, my reports were written in quite dry, dull text. They were very different from my tests, in which red was a prominent feature.

Here, you get red, yellow and green. So at a glance, you can see how we are doing.

But you can also click on each little tile and read what has been written about that sector. It might be that there is progress but still work to do; the story might be a lot more complicated than a single colour can indicate.

And, wonderfully, there is also a way for you, perhaps as someone working in one of these sectors, to send some feedback. You might know that something has changed, or that in fact there has been more progress than the tracker is showing.

Now, as a journalist, it’s tempting to look for the red and start to get a little stroppy with a few politicians.

Journalistic instincts

But Dr Stuart Theobald, the founder and chairperson at Krutham who put the whole thing together, tells me that we should just wait a little before people like me go back to our journalistic instincts. 

He acknowledges that, yes, some reforms have stopped because of political problems, or opposition. And some have just failed.

But some have been stopped deliberately, because the reform no longer makes sense. In other words, yes it’s stopped — but for a good reason.

So, if you are interested, it does make sense to actually go a little deeper into each sector, just to see how things really are.

I know that one of the reasons you really read this is because you are searching for an answer to that question: “Will South Africa be okay?”

I mean, there is a lot to be worried about.

Just as there is in the US, or China, or many, many other places right now.

It might be worth just checking in with this tracker from time to time. Perhaps put it on your browser dashboard or something. 

It will give you a very informed response to the question you’re really asking. DM