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Report
Rebuilding South Africa's 'beyond-repair' infrastructure is key to boost industry and employment
FRANCE 24 English
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6/19/2024
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00:00
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will be sworn in for a second term in
00:04
Pretoria on Wednesday after his African National Congress struck a government
00:09
coalition deal following disappointing elections. The May 29th polls produced no
00:14
overall winner and the ANC suffered its worst score since the end of apartheid
00:19
in 1994. Ramaphosa came to power promising to tackle corruption and South
00:24
Africa's energy crisis but his time in office has been plagued by power cuts
00:28
and rising unemployment and for more on this we can bring in Stephen Chan
00:32
professor of politics and international studies at SOAS in London and a
00:37
specialist on South African politics. Good morning Stephen. Cyril Ramaphosa is
00:42
sworn in for a second full term today. Can this be considered a victory for the
00:47
South African president? It's a temporary victory. He had to put this coalition
00:52
together underneath a very great deal of stress and pressure. It remains to be
00:57
seen whether this coalition will work. It does mean compromises all the way
01:03
down the line for the next five years in terms of government policy and whether
01:08
or not this will allow redress of situations like the electricity cuts and
01:12
increase in employment and things of that nature. We'll have to see whether
01:16
there's an actual unified government or a divided one that hinders all of these
01:21
efforts. Under the election last month its fallout has brought South Africa a
01:27
coalition government for the first time with at least five parties involved. How
01:31
is this going to affect Ramaphosa's own manoeuvres? Basically five parties gives
01:38
in fact Ramaphosa some room for manoeuvre because there has to be
01:42
consensus among the parties for major government decisions. In a way having
01:46
smaller parties in the coalition allows Ramaphosa to try to outflank the major
01:52
party in the coalition the Democratic Alliance that has been putting a great
01:56
deal of pressure on Ramaphosa. But what this means is that you're going to have
02:00
an administration for the next five years of constant manoeuvre, constant
02:04
politics and it remains to be seen whether the kind of decisive action the
02:09
government needs to take will be able to be taken. And how is this new era of
02:14
politics going to change the political landscape in South Africa be it the
02:19
former opposition Democratic Alliance which is entering government for the
02:22
first time or for instance the left-wing economic freedom fighters? The
02:28
economic freedom fighters together with Jacob Zuma's MK party will be an
02:33
opposition, quite a strong opposition. In terms of government depending on the
02:39
shape of the former coalition and the portfolios haven't been announced yet
02:43
sometime after the inauguration perhaps they will be announced but what you're
02:48
going to have is a jockeying for position and basically the 2029 election
02:54
campaign starts now as each of the parties in the coalition seeks to
02:58
outshine the others. So the whole idea is not so much to work for the common good
03:04
but to work for party advantage to poise it for taking power in a decisive
03:08
fashion five years down the line. And as Simo Ramaphosa came into office as a
03:14
new broom following the corruption-tainted presidency of Jacob Zuma
03:18
is the president still considered to be a difference from what has gone before?
03:23
He's more technocratic of course than Zuma and he did put up with Zuma as a
03:28
deputy in the Zuma government. So what you have is a mixture. He's obviously
03:34
extremely intellectually well put together. The real problem is not just
03:38
the president. What you've got is a party the ANC has fallen way behind at
03:44
the times. The president may have technocratic instincts but the party
03:48
itself is full of people who are not at all technocratic. There's no emerging
03:53
youth wing. What was the youth wing left to form the Economic Freedom Fighters
03:58
because they thought they were not encouraged to come through. So you've got
04:02
as it were a fossilized ANC and the party is going to be a drag on any
04:08
president no matter which party he comes from in a unity government. Clear skies
04:13
thinking, new thinking, technocratic thinking. That is not a great skill set
04:18
in South Africa right now. And finally, South Africa has continued to grapple
04:23
with serious problems during Ramaphosa's time in office such as energy
04:27
shortages, crime and rising unemployment. Is there any prospect of the new
04:32
government moving the needle on those problems over the next five years?
04:37
Infrastructure renewal because a lot of infrastructure is beyond repair and
04:42
basically has to be reconstructed from scratch. That's going to cost billions in
04:47
terms of investment. So the new government has got to give at least
04:52
the impression of stability to attract international investment because there
04:56
quite simply isn't enough money in South Africa itself to do all of this.
05:01
Infrastructure that works, particularly electricity, will encourage industry.
05:06
Industry would encourage employment. What you've got is a cascading cause and
05:11
effect situation in South Africa. But they've got to start with infrastructure
05:16
before anything else starts to work.
05:19
Thank you very much for that, Stephen Chan, Professor of Politics and
05:22
International Studies at SOAS in London.
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