Note from the editor

Among all the bad news we are constantly being bombarded with, among all the pre-election rhetoric that will eventually become a tsunami of lies and false promises, among all the pessimism, there was indeed some positive news last week.

It came in the form of a US bank, Goldman Sachs’, 20-year report on South Africa, entitled Two decades of freedom. What South Africans are doing with it, and what needs to be done.

The feeling of optimism, however, soon vanishes when one considers the full impact of the report. It does not tell the full story of life in South Africa and Pretoria.

The report stated that 85% of the population has access to electricity, compared to 58,2% in 1996.

What about the other 15%? How many millions of citizens does this statistic imply? The same goes for the 27% of South Africans now with access to fresh water and the 38% without access to sanitation.

According to the report, the percentage of the population living below the poverty line has decreased from 40% to 31%, but inequality is higher than it has ever been before.

This inequality and divide between rich and poor, class and class, has become the bane of our society.

The mining sector contributes only 5,5% to the South African gross domestic product (GDP), a major change from the 15% in 1986.

Banking and real estate are the largest industries in the economy, contributing 23,9% of GDP. This trend is a major concern as it results in a situation of structural unemployment; where jobs are vacant and available, but the unemployed do not have the necessary skills.

Since 1994, the country’s GDP has almost tripled from R136b to R385b today. Try to tell the unemployed, the hungry and the poorest of the poor that they live in a progressive and economically dynamic country and see if they care.

Regarding South Africans themselves, the population grew by 27,6% in just 15 years between 1996 and 2011, adding an extra 11,2m people to the nation.

Labour relations continue to be South Africa’s number one challenge. Over the five-year period from 1995 to 1999, 35 500 working days were lost due to industrial strike action. Between 2008 and 2012, this number was nearly 3 million – over 800 times higher.