There has been much unrest in the media of late when assessing South Africa from a commercial and political perspective in light of the contentious issue of land and its redistribution. Alec Hogg shares from his personal encounters, reminding us that while we face challenges in South Africa we are still on the precipice of the African growth story, and have our constitution to thank for allowing for hope in the face of adversity. – Lucienne Ferreira
Hello. I’m Alec Hogg and this is the Rational Perspective.
Well, once in a while I manage to get the other side of what we call here in South Africa ‘the boerewors curtain’ into the Pretoria environment, and that happened this morning. I spent the morning with some really decent people who are the executives and branch managers of a company called New Holland. It’s a subsidiary of Invicta, one of the bigger industrial companies in South Africa, and New Holland is in the business of selling primarily to farmers. Not an easy thing to be doing at this current turbulent time in South Africa’s history – not least because politicians are suggesting that there should be all kinds of land distribution and that farmers should be restricted in the size of the farms that they could have and also that perhaps, things have to be changed into the future in a politically imperative way, if not economically so.
As we’ve said a number of times the genes that it takes to be elected are certainly not the same genes that it takes to run a successful economy. Be that as it is, what do you say to a group of people who are caught in the vice between political ideology on the one hand and a slow-growing economy on the other? My message to them was quite simple. Have a look at your environment. Have a look at Africa. Outside of South Africa, Africa is thriving. Six of the ten fastest growing economies in the world come from other parts of this continent and it’s likely to come off the very low base it’s at, at the moment, to do even better into the future.
The other point about South Africa is that this country is blessed with a wonderful Constitution. A Constitution, which is the overriding laws of this society. A Constitution, which South Africans (only now) are starting to get to grips with – only now starting to realise that politicians do not have Divine Right to write laws. Whatever they do propose, has to be constitutionally accurate. We’ve seen a number of those laws being thrown back for the first time. The South African Constitution is a jewel. It is a national asset by which we should all live. Perhaps people in the agricultural sector should be thinking about more now, than ever before.
This is Alec Hogg with the Rational Perspective.
