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A conference Ramaphosa should attend

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

I’M writing this column from cold London, Great Britain. The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference that I had come here for, is now behind. It took place at Excel London last week.

What a spectacular conference! I met and connected with wonderful people from all over the world who care about the world we live in.

Amongst the speakers were Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, Sir Niall Ferguson, John Mackey, John Anderson, Vivek Ramaswamy, US House Speaker Mike Johnson, Magatte Wade, Konstantin Kisin, David Brooks of The New York Times, Arthur C. Brooks, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and many other global stars.

Ian Rowe of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), spoke about the downsides of victimhood mentality. That we should reject victimhood mentality as a people and focus on entrepreneurship, education, religion, family. These are the values we must embrace if we want to create prosperous societies, Rowe said.

During the conference, I couldn’t help but think African leaders would benefit enormously by attending the ARC Forum. The ARC Forum is where the fundamentals of the foundations of prosperity are discussed.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa would make a great ARC Forum delegate. He’s mishandling South Africa, with disastrous results. What’s the evidence of that? Well, just look at the controversial Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) and the expropriation bill that Ramaphosa and his party have imposed on South Africa. These are counterproductive, anti-growth policies. Yet, we now have them.

The importance of private property rights and limited government as building blocks of a prosperous society need to be explained to Ramaphosa who believes statism is the way to address South Africa’s socioeconomic challenges.

Real, consequential economic reforms, the Milei type of reforms are desperately needed to revive South Africa’s economy. A weak economy that is maintaining the current sky-high unemployment rates.

How can governments get fiscal policy right? How do we avoid the expansion and powers of the state? Because that’s destructive to our prosperity and our freedoms. Vivek Ramaswamy spoke about this.

The accumulation of public debt is not just an economic issue. It’s also a moral issue. How is it moral that we keep accumulating debt that will have to be repaid by the next generation? These are the questions we need to ask in our nations when it comes to fiscal responsibility, Vivek and Peter Costello echoed. The idea that the state must be the nanny should be rejected worldwide.

Changes begin in our communities, US House Speaker said. More power to communities.

I like the element of Christianity of the ARC Forum. The importance of God. The importance of Christian values.

Christian values are good values in large part. We should embrace them wherever we can. I believe that on net balance, Christian values have been good for humanity.

It really was an honor to be a delegate at the ARC Forum. The entire Forum was exciting and intellectually stimulating.

I finished the ARC totally inspired and I look forward to advocating for change in my country South Africa.

My book Lessons from Past Heroes is about the values that were discussed at the ARC. Personal responsibility, family, a smaller government, the free enterprise system. Taking responsibility in our societies. That is what my book is about. That makes it an important book, I believe.

I did sell some of the copies and it was wonderful.

The Forum reminded me that I’m not alone in the values that I stand for. There are many people from other parts of the world who believe in the values that I believe in. It’s universal values. 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