By Alec Hogg
My two week visit to SA was a reminder that living in London has provided my imaginary helicopter. Distance provides perspective easily lost when you’re in the melee. There’s a good reason why history’s best generals conducted battles from hilltops rather than the front line.
Overlaying this perspective is the benefit of reflecting on the “why” of those charged with making decisions that determine our future. This is a tool acquired from Simon Sinek, a Joburg-raised leadership guru whose TED talk on the subject is the third most watched of all time (over 30 million views).
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Sinek refers us to Golden Circles – the outer being the “what”; then the “how”; with the inner one the “why”. Most of humanity is aware only of what they do, rarely stopping to analyse deeply-held convictions which shape their why. Only by analysing and understanding the core circle can we properly appreciate what lies behind our own and other people’s actions.
After a fortnight of catching up, observing and discussing the country with friends and associates, it’s now abundantly clear the “why” of ANC leadership is neatly divided into two camps. Neither augur well for the country’s future.
The first is shamelessly kleptocrat, actively plundering State resources and is impervious to any criticism. The other correctly identifies this approach as a destructive force but intends replacing it with a socialist utopia where “the rich” get heavily penalised and their resources diverted to “the poor”.
Jacob Zuma and his acolytes lead the first camp, currently wielding the sceptre within the ANC’s inner sanctum. Pravin Gordhan and his supporters are flag bearers for the second. Victory by the first group condemns the country to repeating Zimbabwe’s misery. The alternative wants to challenge Einstein’s definition of insanity but is sure to deliver a slower and equally ruinous repeat of socialist experiments in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Argentina, Cuba, Venezuela and large swathes of the African continent.
Assessing the “why” of SA’s political leadership leads to an obvious conclusion: simply ejecting Zuma is not the solution. The only way for SA to unleash its human potential and create bright future is for the ANC to follow the National Party into oblivion. SA’s business community supports Gordhan as the lesser evil. Such appeasement is a mistake. Feeding the crocodile in the hope it will eat you last has never been a rational option.
