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South Africa's Building Blocks and Problem Areas

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South Africa's Building Blocks and Problem Areas 1 South Africa’s Building Blocks and Problem Areas by W B Vosloo* - Wollongong, January 2013 Foreign visitors, who might have been exposed to other parts of Africa, are often surprised at what they see on arrival in South Africa. Visitors are surprised by the modern airport facilities, the six-lane highways in and around the major cities, the many high-rise buildings, the large traffic volumes including a multitude of big trucks and expensive German cars, huge township development projects, five-star hotels, abundant modern shopping malls, more white faces than expected, well-maintained farmlands and high-quality livestock herds by the roadside, modern deepwater port facilities at five port cities, a wide variety of eateries and an abundance of food, a large stock of luxurious brick-built homes, extensive hospital and health services – but also around the cities large stretches of squalid squatter townships and, on street corners in the outlying suburbs of cities, large collections of people just sitting around looking for employment. To explain the context requires a more comprehensive analysis. Positive Building Blocks Sound Basic Infrastructure Since its early colonial era, South Africa was well served by its major port cities: Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban. During the 1960s two additional deep-sea harbours were constructed: one at Richards Bay to export coal and one at Saldanha Bay to export iron ore. Both export harbours are connected with good railway lines running hundreds of kilometres to the inland mining areas. Apart from these, South Africa has well-developed transport corridors between the port cities and the mining, industrial and commercial centres in the inland area – some of which developed more than a century ago. South Africa has more than 40 percent of all the paved roads and railroads on the continent of Africa. South Africa produces more than 50 percent of the total electricity output on the continent at six major coal-fired power stations and eight hydro-electric power pump schemes, and one nuclear-powered power station. Several giant new facilities are under construction to service the expanding distribution networks. South Africa is also well served by around fifteen large water- storage dams and a wide network of irrigation canals and tunnels. Sound Business and Financial Infrastructure For more than a century South Africa has been served by a network of financial institutions and business support systems. The major banks, Standard, First National, Nedbank and ABSA have been in operation for generations, each with a countrywide network of branches. In addition, there are several merchant banks focusing on business expansions and mergers. All the major accountancy networks are represented across the country as well as a plethora of attorneys, solicitors, conveyancers, tax consultants, management consultants, marketing agents and insurance agents. The mining, manufacturing and retail sectors are well-organised to lobby their interests. The trade union movement has a history of more than a century and is today predominantly represented by COSATU, one of the partners of the ANC government. Several major insurance companies – SANLAM, Old Mutual, Liberty Life and African Life – have been in operation for over 80 years and have played a major role in offering pension schemes, a wide array of insurance policies and in mobilising the savings of millions of persons in their capacity as predominant institutional investors. South Africa has also been well served by development corporations, both 2 public and privately sponsored, to stimulate and channel development support such as the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC, now called Business Partners). Last, but not least, a pillar of the business and financial infrastructure is the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) – the 11th largest in the world. Organised stock exchanges enable investors to acquire or sell shares in public companies. They can diversify risks by owning shares in several firms that are engaged in different businesses without having to become directly involved in management. Because shares can be easily bought and sold, change in ownership does not cause disruptions in operations as it does in either sole proprietorships or partnerships. The continuity of a public company makes long- range planning easier and also increases the ability of the incorporated firm to borrow money for expansion. The market capitalisation of the JSE is the largest in Africa and larger than Russia’s stock market. A strong capital market, strong financial systems and financial stability is crucial for sustained economic growth. A Developed Education Network Some of South Africa’s universities have been in action close to a century, e.g. Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Pretoria, Witwatersrand, Potchefstroom, Grahamstown, Fort Hare (counting Nelson Mandela as one of its famous students), Natal and University of South Africa (UNISA), a correspondence university with more than 100,000 students from across Africa and elsewhere in the world. Even Robert Mugabe, during his years in prison, was a student of UNISA. Most of South Africa’s Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, politicians, senior civil servants and particularly also business leaders and managers are graduates of South African universities. In addition, every major city is also served by technical and teacher training colleges offering vocational training in all relevant fields. The education sector consists of some 8 million primary, 4.5 million secondary, and one million tertiary learners. 30,000 schools and 400,000 educators. Education is compulsory for the 7-15 age category and 20 percent of the national budget (5.5 percent of GDP) is spent on public education. Literacy levels are estimated at 82 percent: 81 percent female and 83 percent male. At most primary schools, 50 percent of learners are female. At university level, the majority of students are female. Much still needs to be done to improve the quality of public education. For most of the past decade, less than 50 percent of candidates passed the final school-leaving examination. Private (independent) education is able to offer world-class schools that increasingly attract international pupils. Within the public sector there are also many ex-White suburban schools that are now racially integrated, where 100 percent pass rates are achieved. Of those who gained matric passes good enough to get them into university in 2003, only 5 percent were Black, compared to 7 percent Coloured, 41 percent Indian and 36 percent White. Unfortunately there are also dysfunctional township schools, which only achieve 0 to 20 percent pass rates and where a culture of teaching and learning is absent. The hardest part is to improve the quality of teachers. During the anti-apartheid ‘struggle’ years, much criticism was directed against the Bantu Education Act of 1953 which introduced mother-tongue education for the various African communities. It was claimed that it was designed to consign Black people to a destiny of manual labour and mental oppression. But the principle of mother-tongue education was consistently supported by Afrikaans- speakers for many decades. Afrikaners have always maintained that mother-tongue education is the simple de facto reality in mother-tongue societies like England, France, Germany and Italy. The 3 mainstream language, mother-tongue language and the official language is one and the same thing. In a multi-lingual country like South Africa, with its 11 official languages, English – or perhaps ‘broken English’ – has become the lingua franca. A growing number of Afrikaner and African parents have selected English as the preferred medium of instruction for their children in recent years. The consequence has been a marked intensification of learning problems. A study by Webb and Kembo-Sure, a research team, reported in African Voices, 2000, p.7, “… The decision of school authorities and parents to use English as the language of learning in schools (especially primary schools) has definitely contributed to the under-development of the South African people.” The same point was also made by Mamphela Ramphele, widow of Steve Biko and former Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, in a press interview on March 8th, 2009: “There is overwhelming evidence that learning through the first language or mother tongue helps to anchor learning in the child’s immediate environment: family, community and everyday interactions. Children, who are taught in the first few years in their mother tongue, while other languages are introduced as subjects, tend to become more proficient in all languages. It provides the anchor for better and deeper learning by linking it to everyday life and one’s own identity.” Access to World-Class Science and Technology In contrast to other parts of Africa, South Africa had the benefit of easy access to the predominant sources of modern science and technology – the major Western countries such as the USA, Western Europe and the United Kingdom. A very large proportion of White academics in a multitude of disciplines had the opportunity to pursue post-graduate studies at the trend-setting universities abroad: the Ivy League schools of America, the top universities in the UK, the leading universities in Germany, France, the Netherlands and in Scandinavia. This interaction was facilitated by the language proficiency of not only large numbers of White scholars but also by
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