Article

Don’t tell me I have no solutions!

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

THERE are people who say that I do not propose solutions to South Africa’s socioeconomic problems. That all I do is criticise South Africa’s government.Totally wrong. 100% wrong!

I’ve been proposing solutions to South Africa’s economic stagnation for years now.

If you go to my website phumlanimajozi.com, and click on ARTICLES, you will find all the articles I have written over the past ten years proposing solutions to South Africa’s socioeconomic problems.

My book Lessons from Past Heroes also proposes what I believe are key policy areas we must focus on to reboot South Africa.

Let’s start with the unemployment crisis that disproportionately affects the youth in South Africa.

To address the unemployment crisis, let’s do away with black economic empowerment (BEE) policies. These policies are counterproductive and suppress business growth. They are discriminatory too. They discriminate against South Africa’s white population.

With BEE policies, job opportunities are lost. For example, the world’s richest billionaire Elon Musk has been blocked from expanding his Starlink business in South Africa; because of BEE laws that require him to operate Starlink with black people. I don’t know why the colour of the owner of the business matters. What matters is that the business operates in South Africa and employs South Africans; helping to reduce South Africa’s sky-high unemployment rate.

So, repeal BEE! That’s one of my proposed solutions that I have echoed many times.

And then there is the national minimum wage that will increase to R28.79 from R27.58 from next month. What’s that for? Repeal it to address the unemployment crisis. Its existence doesn’t make sense.

How do we have a government-mandated national minimum wage in a country with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world? Minimum wage laws price low skilled people, especially the youth, out of work. This effect of minimum wage laws exacerbates unemployment in South Africa.

The tax burden is an excruciating pain for all working South Africans. We should cut taxes to stimulate economic productivity so that more people are employed in South Africa. Stronger economic growth will create more jobs. The national goal should be to get as many people as possible into jobs.

We have one of the very high tax rates in the developing world. The high taxes push up the cost of living. South Africa doesn’t need high taxes.

On sky-high crime, why don’t we emulate President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele? Bukele’s war against gangs in El Salvador has been a huge success, with El Salvador now one of the safest countries in the world. Let’s emulate Bukele – round up all criminals and lock them up. That’s the solution to South Africa’s crime crisis.

I have commended police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi in my home province KwaZulu Natal. His approach is sensible. He recognises that the system is soft on criminals and that’s not helpful. Hence, he’s in a war with violent criminals.

Labour unions are too powerful and need to be confronted by a brave leader. These unions have huge influence in public policy and that’s no benefit to South Africa.

This is not a country of interest groups. It’s a country where public policy must benefit all; not benefit only interest groups like labour unions. Reduce the influence of labour unions in policy, South Africa charts a new path of pro-growth policy that benefits all and boosts the economy.

SOEs have sucked us all dry. We need a rigorous privatisation drive in the country. That’s the only effective way to spare the taxpayer who has to bailout the failing SOEs.

Leave business to the private sector! The role of government is not to meddle in the economy.

Politicians always think that they know better. No, they don’t know better. We know better as private citizens. The efficient market forces are best in driving the economy, not government bureaucrats.

The government must deregulate as much as possible. Our leaders must minimise the size of the government and just focus on key fundamental functions of the government – policing, military, courts.

Economic freedom is the solution to South Africa’s socioeconomic problems. Remember, stronger capitalism is what will help us address our challenges.

The government cannot exist without private citizens being productive in the market, generating wealth, making income, paying taxes. You need stronger capitalism for government’s tax revenues to increase.

Cutting the size of government size in the country needs bravery and determination. Whoever were to tackle our problems as described above would have to be brave. They would also have to be honest to citizens about the pain that would come with the reform process.

I’ve been proposing solutions since I was a young full-time student at the university. If you think I don’t have solutions, then you haven’t been listening carefully.

I wish that under our coalition government, all the above I have discussed would be adopted and implemented. I doubt it will be adopted and implemented.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is weak in this coalition government. They are not strong enough to fight for the embrace of classical liberalism in public policy.

BELA and the expropriation act are testament to DA’s weakness in the coalition government.

I hope that with all I have discussed above, I have sufficiently communicated what the solutions should be for South Africa’s socioeconomic problems. Is it everything? No. But it does shed light on the basics that need to be adopted to fix South Africa. Don’t tell me I have no solutions again! PM

This article was first published on Politicsweb.co.za. Buy Phumlani’s book Lessons from Past Heroes here, and subscribe to his YouTube channel here.

© PHUMLANI M. MAJOZI