"South Africa grows at night" — Mteto Nyati on the lesson Baltimore taught us

Eskom chairman and BNC regular Mteto Nyati has a penchant for sharing pithy wisdom on social media. He shared on X yesterday that his daughter, who is studying in the US, watched the Boks beat the All Blacks from the stands in Baltimore — then watched two South Africans, strangers until that moment, moved to tears by our anthem. Mteto Nyati takes that scene and asks the question we keep avoiding: if our rugby team can be world-class, why can't the rest of us? His answer borrows from an old Indian proverb — that a country can grow "at night while the government sleeps." Three fixes, he argues, would let South Africa join the winning nations for good. Simple to list. Brutally hard to do. Well worth your time..By Mteto Nyati*.Yesterday my daughter, who is studying in the United States, attended the Springboks versus All Blacks match in Baltimore.She spent five years of her life in that city before moving to Cleveland. At the stadium she bumped into an old school mate from Dainfern College who now lives in Florida. Two South Africans, far from home, finding each other in a crowd of more than 68,000. It was already an emotional moment.What neither of them expected was how deeply they would be moved by our national anthem. Standing there, thousands of kilometres from home, singing Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. Pride in our roots. Pride in our diversity. Pride in excellence. And faith - watching the circle and the kneeling that followed the final whistle.That image stayed with me.There is a well known observation in India, popularised by Gurcharan Das, that “India grows at night while the government sleeps.” It captures a country whose people and enterprises often advance despite, rather than because of, the state. South Africa has that same untapped potential. We see it in the Springboks. World-class performance is not confined to the rugby field. It exists across our people, our businesses, our communities. We have what it takes.What we still need is simple, and it is hard:Create a genuinely business-friendly environment. Confront crime with seriousness and consistency. Appoint leaders in both the private and public sectors on merit.Those three interventions would allow this country to occupy the place it deserves among the winning nations of the world..Read more:.South Africa’s business crisis: Violence, costs, and policy failures collide.We are resilient people. Our character has been forged in difficulty. In a volatile world, that character is not a weakness. It is an advantage.The Springboks keep showing us what is possible when talent, discipline, purpose and belief come together. The rest of the country can do the same.We have the people. We have the potential. Now we must get our act together and grow during the day as well..*Mteto Nyati is the chairman of Eskom. .Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.

"South Africa grows at night" — Mteto Nyati on the lesson Baltimore taught us

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