SA Blook, Chapter 3 — What the world thinks of South Africa

Posted by Grant Brewer on 02 Jun 2008

Understanding South Africa is a challenge. It is a country full of paradoxes and extremes. As the setting of one of the most remarkable political transformations in modern history, it is also home to widespread poverty and mind–numbing violent crime. We remain trapped by past beliefs in our strengths — such as the idea that South Africa is a rich country because of its mineral wealth, or that our extraordinary political transition owes us opportunities in a global economy — and we're struggling to define what exactly we contribute to and how we relate to the world around us. How do all these things come together to forge a nation that can define its own meaning for the twenty first century, and in doing so create an emerging land of opportunity.

Any perspective on South Africa held by someone living outside of South Africa is largely defined by current events as reported by the media. This is especially true as South Africa is just not as important an emerging market as Brazil, China, India or Russia (the so–called BRIC emerging markets) and therefore doesn’t get as much analysis.

Sadly, the view of South Africa across the world is often defined by global television news networks. Sadly, because their focus on sound–bytes and the five–minute news reports often doesn’t allow a comprehensive investigation of the details. And after the recent xenophobic violence in Gauteng and other parts of the country that has been flashed across international television screens, it is difficult to think of a broad perspective on how people outside of South Africa think of our country. But let us start at the beginning and not lose sight of many other perspectives that are relevant.

The home of Nelson Mandela

Although interest is waning, since it is eighteen years since Mr Mandela’s long walk to freedom became headline news and fourteen years since South Africa became a democracy, South Africa has a special place in the world as the home of Nelson Mandela, Arch–Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, and the home of one of the most remarkable political transformations in modern history.

As a country youthful in its democracy and living through the growing pains of democracy, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the relatively peaceful transformation seemed very unlikely back in 1989 at a time when communism and the Berlin wall were collapsing. Growing pains are exactly that: a painful but passing phase, and if one takes a broader perspective some of the frustrations and issues may be stepping stones to a better future.

We just haven’t got to the end of the South African story yet. I’m reminded that India celebrates sixty years of independence this year, and despite areas of progress, there are many areas where there is room for improvement in the sub–continent. We shouldn’t over–estimate the benefit of our political transformation. We’re trading on our past if we think that the world will remain interested and supportive purely because we were something of a miracle in the past. We’ve got to focus on creating something fresh and positive for the world to be interested in.

A sophisticated emerging market

South Africa has the largest and most developed economy in Africa. Informed foreigners know that South Africa has:

A well developed capital market that is well regulated.
Well functioning corporate and tax law
Good infrastructure, including modern telecommunications (despite it being at too high a cost and with too little competition).
A well established political system.
One of the most sophisticated and effective constitutions in the world, and definitely in Africa.
The status as one of only two defined emerging markets in Africa, the other being Egypt.

Despite our challenges, we’re a lot further down the road than other countries in Africa (and indeed than many other emerging markets) and well positioned to develop in the future. South Africa is a a country rich in mineral resources. For the past 105 years it has been the leading producer of gold, a position recently taken by China. Certainly, South Africa still is seen as a mining giant amongst world economies.

A gateway to Africa

For many people & companies from western Europe and North America, South Africa has been the gateway into Africa for many companies in a post–democracy world. This isn’t necessarily true of countries in the East, such as India and China, which have their own trade routes into Africa. As Africa becomes a new frontier for Chinese foreign investment (such as the investment in Standard Bank, which is the largest Chinese foreign investment in Africa), South Africa is certainly in the sights of Chinese organisations.

A global destination

South Africa is the world of the safari and of inescapable natural beauty. We shouldn’t try to escape the opportunities of tourism. There is no doubt it is a beautiful land with wonderful weather and incredible visual beauty. Indeed, South Africa is the Cradle of Human Kind.

And, as we host the 2010 World Cup, we will further make South Africa a destination. South Africans seem to be the most pessimistic about the country’s ability to host the competition. They forget that when Mexico or Brazil hosted the competition, they were not as modernised as South Africa is today. The World Cup, despite requiring an enormous investment from government, is a great opportunity to showcase South Africa and leave TV viewers with the understanding that the country is a well developed emerging market and not a backwater at the tip of Africa.

A country struggling to define itself

In some ways, any perspective on South Africa seems inextricably linked to politics and the transition to democracy only fourteen years ago. As a young democracy, wrestling with change, South Africa is struggling to find its own place in the world. South Africa is frequently a paradox: sophisticated and developed in one breath, and crippled by a disastrous government reaction to humanitarian crisis and terrifying violence in another.

A rogue democracy

The Washington Post published an article in which it describes South Africa as a “rogue democracy”, suggesting that this new category of state be defined just for South Africa. The issue is that South Africa has “actively blocked United Nations discussions about human rights abuses in Zimbabwe — and in Belarus, Cuba, North Korea and Uzbekistan. South Africa was the only real democracy to vote against a resolution demanding that the Burmese junta stop ethnic cleansing and free jailed dissident Aung San Suu Kyi.”¹ Worse, “In the General Assembly, South Africa fought against a resolution condemning the use of rape as a weapon of war because the resolution was not sufficiently anti-American”², and this in a country plagued by a high incident of rape. These issues extend back over some time and reflect a country struggling to understand how it relates to other countries, in and outside of Africa, and the major issues challenging our world today. In the name of perceived ideals meant to give everyone a fair hearing and justice, South Africa stands in the way of decisions that would benefit the oppressed peoples of the developing world.

This foreign policy stance makes understanding South Africa complex. The next election will usher in a new administration that needs to define how it will react to these issues in the future, without giving up on the notable morale high ground which South Africa is attempting to hold following its own transition to democracy. The country’s stance mirrors the current President’s own struggle to define his view of South Africa’s role in the modern world. Thabo Mbeki’s bizarre stance on HIV Aids and the crisis in Zimbabwe, demonstrate the at its most destructive, the confusion the current presidency has brought upon our country.

Xenophobia

When I first started writing this piece, the intention was to focus mostly on positive perceptions of the country. However, the the last few weeks changed that. It would be impossible to explore what people think of South Africa without considering the impact of the graphic images of violence, despair and dislocation that flew across television screens across the globe. That our governments response was inadequate goes without saying — in all truth, despite initial reservations of some of the ideals of the probable next ANC administration, they couldn’t have done any worse. Our president has lost touch with the people (and probably did so a long time ago). For the first time in a long while, I was embarrassed to be South African. It will be a long and winding road back to credible relations with other African countries.

Opportunities for Africa — finding our place in the world

South Africa has yet to find and define its place in the world. We remain trapped by our past beliefs in our strengths — such as the idea that South Africa is a rich country because of its mineral wealth, or that our extraordinary political transition owes us opportunities in a global economy — and we’re struggling to define what exactly we contribute to and how we relate to the world around us.

South Africa needs a sense of purpose. Instead of complaining about the affects of globalisation, we need to accept that, like it or not, we are a smaller emerging market that needs to find a way to compete with larger emerging markets such as China or India or Brazil. It would be pointless to try to go head to head with Chinese low cost manufacturing. That market has gone for South Africa. For example, our textile industry is unlikely ever to get the benefits of scale and labour flexibility that enable the Chinese to undercut the price point of manufacturers in South Africa.

Instead, we need to define our own path. We need to define what it is that we’re going to excel at. There are examples of South African greatness: from the Rupert family, through MTN and SAB Miller, to Mark Shuttleworth. Perhaps we need a rallying call to a common purpose: the kind of leadership that JF Kennedy demonstrated in rallying the US in the early sixties through a call to put people on the moon. South Africans should be turning their attention toward the east, to India and China to uncover opportunities. The secret to many strategy challenges is to define a clear sense of direction that creates meaning and purpose for the people that need to execute the strategy. Hopefully the next administration will learn something from general organisational strategy.

Nick Binedell from the Gordon Institute for Business Science (GIBS) once described South Africa as a pioneering frontier town. There is a lot of merit in using this lens,reminiscent of western films, to understand opportunity in South Africa in the future. Frontiers are all about enormous opportunities, usually coupled with pretty substantial risk. Fortune, in a frontier, will favour the brave. Frontiers are also full of unlucky people and missed opportunities; frontier’s people just don’t let these inevitable failures weigh them down. Perhaps South African’s need to learn how to be proud, how to love their whole country (not just parts of it) and to see the opportunities for what they are: unique opportunities for contribute to the development of a country, its people and themselves.

Education that gets people engaged into the economy is the key to the future

South Africa certainly needs to realise that it can be a more prosperous and influential country because of the strength of its people. But we under–estimate the affect of apartheid on the skills, confidence & capabilities of South Africans. This means that we should have a far more dramatic focus on education of all levels, especially in the sciences. Raising the capabilities of our people is a non-negotiable requirement.

The question of what these people should do, even if (or when) educated immediately arises? The challenge for South Africa is engage more of its people into the economy and into life. We can’t possibly continue in the future with so many people in the country literally excluded from life by poverty and unemployment. There probably isn’t a short term fix and any change starting with education, poverty relief and some of kind of public works program will only have an affect across generations and not over a few years.

Pragmatically, we should accept that the next administration that takes office after the general election next April will result in bigger government. The new administration will be seeking more direct involvement in the development of the country. Before we shout that idea down, we should recognise that the so–called eastern tiger economies largely benefited (and many still do) from a benevolent autocratic state.

Capitalising on natural resources

The impact of South Africa’s mineral resource “riches” on the economy has been diminishing for some time, and certainly the economy has grown far beyond mining (or agriculture) alone. However, there is a global commodity boom at the moment, led by the demand for natural resources in places such as China. We may not have a backyard full of oil, but the demand for precious metals is going to last for a good few years yet and South Africa should be position to take more advantage of it. In particular, the country should be exploring how it can support investments downstream to add more value to the minerals before they get exported.

A similar focus could be turned to agriculture. We may not have a perfect climate for all crops, but we do have substantial land mass and a well established agriculture sector. At the minimum the country should be focused on ensuring it can feed itself from its own farming of basic foods. Then there is a global food shortage to take advantage of. Streamlining our agricultural sector and the policies that govern it, along with dealing with land distribution issues transparently and rapidly is going to be necessary. We can’t really afford for the agricultural sector to go into a long term decline. Like the Zimbabwe tobacco industry, our capabilities will fall away very rapidly if we don’t pay attention.

Developing an information economy

If education is sorted out over the next decade, the next generation of students will be better placed to contribute to the global information economy. Education, especially in the sciences is the requirement since the information economy doesn’t help poorly educated and largely unemployed people. The opportunity is for South Africa to operate more in software, design, film, business process outsourcing and similar knowledge rich services. If we can’t compete with the day to labour costs of China in manufacturing, then we’ll need to leap ahead to the service economy more dramatically.

Making the most of the 2010 World Cup

The World Cup is going to put South Africa visually on the television screens of almost two thirds of the planet. Despite the costs and the investment required, the country has committed and as a result it is an opportunity to show case South Africa that shouldn’t be missed. We can demonstrate that we’re a developed emerging market. We can show case our vibrant and energetic culture. Most of all we can demonstrate that South Africa can pull off the World Cup and that is can be done in Africa.

Facing up to the challenges of globalisation

Facing up to our challenges means stepping out of denial at all levels in our society. It means having a government that communicates and shares information, ideas and services to create a truly citizen–centric country that unlocks the human potential of South Africans. Accepting globalisation will mean embracing the opportunities that globalisation brings and working with its limitations and frustrations — globalisation isn’t going away anytime soon. The world isn’t a fair place; large countries are self–interested, and yes, there is racism and inequality in the constant question of whether Africa can normalise its politics and become a more self sustaining economically. But the world doesn’t owe South African anything. We don’t have to agree with these inefficiencies in global economics and politics. It simply means that we need to be better at operating in a global economy, where we shape our own identity and forge our own destiny.

The Depot’s Democracy by Michael Gerson, Washington Post, 28 May 2008. ↩
ibid. ↩

Read the previous chapter Is SA rich or poor? or the next chapter The importance of each individual’s contribution - collectively.

A Global Perspective: What the world thinks of South Africa & what our opportunities are is copyright Grant Brewer 2008. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No-derivatives 2.5 ZA license. Read more about the various authors.

This post is a chapter of the SA Blook: A Piece of Significance, an online book written by a diverse group of writers with strong views of our country and the reality we find ourselves living in. The other chapters in the Blook are: Introduction • 1. The new South Africa - is it real? • 2. Is SA rich or poor? • 3. What the world thinks of South Africa and what our global opportunities are • 4. The importance of each individual's contribution collectively • 5. SA Inc and the business of doing business in SA • 6. The beauty and grandeur that surrounds us • 7. The importance of technology in SA's global emergence • 8. Building brand South Africa • 9. Making the most of SA's creative talents and abilities • 10. Innovate for a better South Africa • 11. The role of the younger generation in SA, and what we need to do to support them • 12. Connecting South Africa - Communities that transcend technology • 13. We are African - the role of collaboration in South Africa's growth

Trackbacks

The trackback URL for this entry is http://grantbrewer.com/trackback/58/4d4oXkCp/

grantbrewer.com

strategy & life zen

Search Box

Similar Articles

Categories

Links

Wise Words