‘Things getting a lot worse’ – SA’s future looking very gloomy, experts warn

While the years 2020 and 2021 will undoubtedly go down as the worst in recent South African history, experts are predicting more gloom.

They say 2022 is a “ticking time bomb” as the failure of the state becomes the gravest threat to constitutional values and rights.

The FW de Klerk Foundation released a human rights report card which looked at the respect, protection, promotion and fulfilment of rights contained in the Bill of Rights during 2021.

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The report said 2021 revealed certain threats to human rights, such as the unsustainable conditions of poverty, inequality, unemployment, violent crime and declining social, educational and health services, which constitute the lived daily experience of a majority of South Africans.

Human rights activist and researcher at the University of Johannesburg Lisa Vetten said SA was experiencing serious political and compounded socioeconomic issues due to the general failure of governance.

Instead of things getting better “they were actually getting a lot worse”.

“I think the extent of corruption means so much money, which should have gone to providing these things to make government work effectively, has been stolen,” she said.

“And people have been deprived of that. The state itself has been weakened so badly, much of it is no longer capable.”

According to the De Klerk Foundation report, the rights of South Africans across the spectrum, particularly their human dignity and equality, were negatively affected.

There was economic growth of only 9.7% in the decade between 2012 and 2021, compared with population growth of 15%, and the world’s highest unemployment rates of 35.3% and 46.6%, the report stated.

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The country now has the world’s highest level of inequality, of 0.63 on the Gini scale; the dependence of 60% of households on government transfers; the very poor quality of education; a continuing deterioration of infrastructure and service delivery; and public health care, the report said.

Human rights activist Mahlatse Modikoane said the state’s crisis has gone beyond just load shedding, rising levels of unemployment, inflation, poverty, inequality and many other socioeconomic indicators, making SA’s future look very gloomy.

“There is a lot going on. We can’t base the violation of the cornerstone of democracy in SA on just Covid.

“We have violence, anarchy, mayhem, lawlessness and many other issues which contribute to the violation,” he said.

“People are worried about job security, the local job market; they do not feel fairly paid; they are worried about their personal safety; while our country has been ranked as one of the worst places to live.”

Human rights lawyer Wayne Ncube said while there was no egregious violation of human rights, 2022 was not just a reflection of the impact of the pandemic and lockdown, but also a result of the failure of the state.

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“It’s definitely a failure of the state and it gives rise to the sort of human right violations we see.”

Ncube said while the country has not yet recovered from the pandemic, there was light at the end of the tunnel – as SA was not still in the downwards spiral of the previous two years.

“The realisation that there was such a massive food insecurity and massive inequality this year is not necessarily an indication things are getting worse, but an indication that people are now seeing how bad the last two years were,” he said.

“None of this has been helped by the increasing fuel prices and the global energy crisis,” he said.

‘It will be years, not weeks, before load shedding ends’