NEWS & MEDIA LETTERS FROM THE PRESIDENT

"The extraordinary story of South Africa "

[ Previous Letters ]

For some political forces in our country, the campaign for this year's General Elections started some months ago. The process of publishing Election Manifestos has now started. Correctly and understandably the election campaign will now intensify.

Clearly, as in elections everywhere else in the world, our national statistics will provide one of the hottest of the issues that will be contested. In some instances, some people will campaign on the basis of the principle that all's fair in love and war.

Among others, two fellow South Africans, Brett Bowes and Steuart Pennington, identified one of the problems we face as a country in this regard. These compatriots organised contributors to, edited and published a book in 2002. Very appropriately, its title is "South Africa: The Good News".

In their Introduction to this very interesting book they wrote: "Right now, South Africans, both local and abroad, do not demonstrate the kind of passionate patriotism we see in many countries. We are a proud people but we are in the habit of focusing on the negative and saying little about the positive. The impact this has on us, and people interested in South Africa, particularly investors and tourists, is damaging."

The book was well received and achieved "bestseller" status. Apart from people reached by reading the copies of the book they bought, in the year since publication, the Editors made presentations to over 11,000 people. Encouraged by the response they received, the Editors published a sequel to the first book, towards the end of 2003. This second book is entitled "South Africa: More Good News".

In his Prologue in this book, Co-editor and Publisher Steuart Pennington returns to the theme he took up in the Introduction to the first. This time he tells of a conversation that took place at a friend's dinner party in July 2002. He writes:

"No sooner had we sat down at the dinner table than one of the guests announced, 'Well, Gertrude and I have decided to leave this land to the black man. We're off to Australia, to the First World, and to sanity.'

"I sat there feeling angry, partly because the beer that I had so much enjoyed two hours earlier was now beginning to go sour as the knot in my stomach tightened, but mostly because I felt increasingly hopeless. Hopeless because I couldn't counter the arguments with any facts. (His wife had requested him to avoid arguing against anybody at the dinner party). Hopeless because I felt the conversation to be a tidal wave of negativity that I was unable to stand up to. Hopeless because my love for this country and its people was being trashed by its own citizens as they lamented our unforgivable past, and our precarious present.

"Now so angry that I was unable to contain myself, I made a sudden decision to leave. I turned to my host and apologised, and then turned to the Australian evangelist and wished him a bon-bloody-voyage."

In this Letter, we will try to introduce our readers to "South Africa: More Good News", in the hope that many of us have read "South Africa: The Good News".

Angel Jones has written a contribution to the second book. It is entitled "Home is where the heart is: Changing Expat Perceptions". He writes:

"Anyone who has ever gone to live and work overseas will tell you that the grass is not always greener on the other side. Ask me. I know. I lived in London for seven years before coming home in 2000. Even though London offered me a truly glamorous advertising job, a Chelsea flat by the river, a whirlwind of exciting activities and access to regular international travel, there is nothing that beats living here."

Angel Jones could write like this because he had lived in the UK for seven years. The majority of us know very little, if anything at all, about the problems afflicting such countries as the UK and the US. In good measure, this seeming insulation from awareness of these problems arises from the fact that their citizens draw no pleasure in broadcasting them.

They do not need books to urge them to tell The Good News about their countries. This does not mean that there is no Bad News. However, their actions are informed by "the kind of passionate patriotism we see in many countries", which Messrs Bowes and Pennington wrote about.

Our democracy is just less than 10 years old. It is confronted by a serious problem of poverty, which will take time and a lot of effort to eradicate. This is one of negatives used to justify a feeling of hopelessness about our future.

Both the UK and the US have incomparably much longer periods of democracy and, therefore, the possibility for their governments and peoples to have solved their social and economic problems much earlier than we ever could. But some of these problems persist, as indicated by the information below.

Nearly 13 million people in the UK live in poverty. This amounts to 1 in 4. This includes nearly 1 in 3 children. People originating from the Caribbean, Bangladesh and Africa were twice as likely to be unemployed than white Britons. In 2000/01, more than two-thirds of people originating from Pakistan and Bangladesh were living in poverty.

In 2002 in the US, 34.6 million people lived in poverty, a number higher than the one for the previous year. This amounts to 1 in 8. 14.1 million of these lived in severe poverty. The poverty rate among African Americans was almost 1 to 4, and 1 to 5 among Hispanics.

In 2002, 34.9 million Americans did not have enough food for basic nourishment, compared to 31 million in 1999. In the same year, 2002, the working poor were poorer than this section of the population was in 1979.

A UK report published towards the end of last year quotes one Karen Law of Sheffield Manor estate. Identifying one of the social results of poverty in the UK, she said: "Twenty years ago, the Manor was considered the crème de la crème of housing estates .There's a new social class now that's growing up from underneath all the others. It's the underclass. They're today teenagers and they have no future."

A 1990 study of 20 countries showed that Russia, the US and the UK were the worst in terms of the proportions of poor households, their respective figures in the above order being 34.3, 23.5 and 23.0 percent. The Nordic countries stood at 8.2 percent each for Denmark and Norway and 9.1 percent for Sweden.

The statement by Karen Law underlines the scale of the challenge of poverty. It may be difficult to comprehend how the UK, which is a number of times more developed and wealthier than we are, is producing large numbers of young people "who have no future". And yet Karen Law's observation sounds the correct and necessary alarm bells for us as well.

Crime is yet another issue which makes it possible for our country to be "thrashed by some of its citizens", to quote Steuart Pennington.

In the UK, between 1991 and 2000/1, murder, attempted murder and threat or conspiracy to murder increased by 160 percent. Various crimes resulting in wounding increased in the same period by 860 percent.

Rape and indecent assault of a woman increased by 42 percent. The increase for all violent crimes during the same period was 176 percent, from 265,085 to 733,387, to give the absolute figures.

It may also come as a surprise to some that Washington DC, the very capital of the US, has one of the highest crime rates in the country. The 2001 national average for violent crimes per 100,000 people was 506. The Washington DC level was 1,508, with Los Angeles coming lower at 1,353.

The figure for one of the most popular holiday centres, Miami, was 2,017. In fact Florida, (where Miami is), relative to the other 51 states that constitute the US (including Washington DC), is rated as having the highest incidence of violent crime and the second highest in terms of the total crime index.

The national, Washington DC and Los Angeles figures for murder were 5.5, 41.8 and 14.8 respectively. For motor vehicle theft the figures were 414, 798 and 1154. The figures for Miami were 17 and 1465. Florida was the 21st highest state with regard to murder, and the 5th highest for vehicle theft.

I have cited the information above about the UK and the US neither to celebrate the fact that they have problems, nor to minimise ours. The point however, is that despite this reality, their citizens do not go about thrashing their countries.

Secondly, because many of us are insufficiently informed, it is easy to think that only we confront problems of poverty and crime, and that these can be solved overnight. This also leads to the misperceptions about "greener pastures" elsewhere, of which Angel Jones wrote.

Poverty and crime in our country are a stark reality, and have been for a long time. Denial of this reality would lead us to do nothing about it. The eradication or radical reduction of these scourges constitutes part of the very core of the programmes we are pursuing and must pursue to meet the goal of a better life for all.

Like its predecessor, "More Good News" also does not seek to hide or minimise these challenges. But it makes the centrally important point that we are not just a country of Bad News, as are neither the UK nor the US. Our government and many of our compatriots are doing many exciting things that are producing Good News.

In "More Good News" (MGN), the former academic, politician and diplomat, Dr Dennis Worrall, now leading an investment research company, writes:

"The political leadership that took South Africa from white minority rule to at least the beginnings of a democratic society was exquisitely mature. And that leadership, and the smooth transfer it affected, had a profound impact on levels of business confidence not just in South Africa but internationally."

Chairman of Unilever, Niall Fitzgerald, writes: "In hindsight, the progress that South Africa has made in less than ten years is nothing short of extraordinary."

The economist at Ecosa, Helmo Preuss, writes: "This progression (in our country's rating by Standard & Poor's) may seem simple and obvious. (After all, we know that the economy is being well managed, and that was not the case in 1994). But, in fact, the progress is remarkable."

Malcolm Dunn, Senior Partner at the accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, says: "South Africa's investment rating (Standard & Poor's) has moved from BB nine years ago to BBB as of 2002. No country has ever achieved the extent of this jump in such a brief span."

Charl Kocks, Director at CA-Ratings, writes: "South African businesses are tough. Very tough. They are tougher than most of their counterparts in countries that fall under the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.We in South Africa manage to keep our businesses alive and safe from default to a greater extent than those in the (United) States and in Europe."

Paul Haupt, MD of the SA Advertising Research Foundation, observes: "We must take heart in the great improvement in living standards many South Africans have experienced since 1994.It is recognised that more progress needs to be made.But we are moving forward at a pace few anticipated in 1994."

One of a group of 4 who write about "Future Leaders" says: "What has been most striking for me over the ten years I've engaged with South Africa's future leaders (black and white) is how proactive they are. We aren't complaining about the education we do or don't receive. We aren't lamenting that national building is not happening. We're getting out there and making things happen."

Angel Jones quotes a South African as saying: "My three years overseas taught me to appreciate what I have - my country, people, culture, history and weather. Here I can contribute to my own economy while I'm close to all my friends and family."

In the Epilogue to MGN, Co-editor Brett Bowes writes: "If our government was a corporate, its share price would be undervalued, its price-earnings ratio would be too low, its acquisition capability severely retarded, and its employee morale negative. Worse still, it would be one of those companies whose great vision is unrewarded by sceptical (or cynical) analysts."

Brian Whittaker, CEO of The Business Trust says: "The good news for South Africa is not that deep-seated problems have evaporated in the early morning sun of political freedom. It is that, together, we are responding to the challenges we inherited, and thereby building a nation capable of surviving and thriving in an ever-changing future."

This is the message we must communicate vigorously during our own election campaign. Unlike some others, we have no need to paint a picture of gloom by refusing to tell the extraordinary story of South Africa.

During the struggle against apartheid we refused to accept the dictum that the truth is the first casualty of war. As we campaign for the democratic renewal of our mandate and the consolidation of a people's contract that will ensure that "together, we respond to the challenges we inherited", we must continue to tell the truth about yesterday, today and tomorrow.

We must continue to respect the words of that great African patriot of Guinea Bissau, Amilcar Cabral - "Tell no lies: claim no easy victories!" To this I would add - "Respect principle: avoid opportunism!"

Steuart Pennington and Brett Bowes will surely have the opportunity to edit yet another and new book, entitled "More & More Good News".