This article was first published by Business Live on 10 July 2025
Let’s take a step back and see where we are. The GNU is a year old; it is time for its gender reveal party. The nappies must come off now. It can stop crawling and take its first strides into finding real-life plans to get the country working again. What should we do? If there is to be a national dialogue, what should we be talking about? How should it be said? Who should be having it?
Let’s start with what we all agree on. Turns out South Africans concur on the important issues:
- Employment should be our first priority, followed by safety
- Race should not be a policy priority
- Most South Africans don’t want BEE to continue being enforced.
(Sources: IRR, SRF, and Ipsos polls and research)
By all accounts and surveys, the indications are that while we are a country of many cultures and colours, we share a largely conservative and family-oriented approach to life. We are concerned about the same things – jobs and safety, bread and butter issues remain at the top of our minds. These are potent sentiments our political leaders, elite, and thought instigators should take note of. It means we don’t have to harp on and on about race, no matter how much fun it is and how the righteous indignation feels so good.
We don’t have to take the people in the red berets, nor the bearded groups in deep khaki, or the suited government officials seriously when they start banging their fists on about race. These are foolish actions by foolish people, and we can tell them that. We can go: “Oi, mampara! Move it along. How are you going to create more jobs for more people and more economic growth for the country?” (Did you know, other words for ‘fool’ in South Arica are mampara, isiphukuphuku, moegoe, poepol, or leoatla.) Don’t be afraid to use these words when addressing the government or the elite. Shake your head, feel the word softly, but say it out loud. Allow yourself to think the thought, then say the word then do a deed that shows your feelings. As ordinary South Africans, we need our voices to be heard, not only at the voting stations but all the time. It is not an expression of hate or revolution; it is a course correction. It is an ‘aikona’ spoken politely but firmly. We must learn how to be more persuasive with our top classes.
Remember what we did with e-tolls? We just refused to pay. OUTA (Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse) showed us the facts and how to say: “No.” There was no violence, and there were no riots, but our voices shouted so loudly it broke the system. We did it again with the recent VAT increase. Absolutely, some opposition parties objected to the increase, and there was much political posturing, but that was a hasty reaction to a mighty rumbling in the population. That energy of collective discontent amongst all groups gathered speed and became a wind of change, invisible, but powerful. We did that by twittering and tweeting and complaining and cautioning. The results were politicians scurrying in the whirlwind and doing their jobs for once. We did that. We know how to do this.
Why did loadshedding stop so suddenly, after years of our torment? The political will brought about by tear of political consequence on the part of the ANC played a big part. The nation’s shared outrage at having their families disrupted during basic tasks like preparing your children for school or their businesses damaged because of the government’s lack of maintenance became the most pressure you can put on a government.
We called their bluff because they knew what would happen at the voting booths if they didn’t fix it. No revolt, just small ripples of voices becoming a tsunami of resolute anger: “Fix this or lose at the polls.” I did interviews across various spheres of our society at the time and while people used different words, they all said the same thing.
A businessman in Sandton would say of the electricity crisis: “The rampant corruption and mismanagement at Eskom is exacerbating the situation. We might also be over-reliant on coal. We need our government to step in, or it will be a disaster for the ANC the next time people vote.” I spoke to a security guard in the checkout queue of a supermarket in Bloubergstrand. He phrased it thusly whilst rubbing his stomach: “It is not because the coal is wet, it is because they (the government) are eating that money. They will eat and eat until we say: “Aikona!” We will open their eyes. You will see that coal will suddenly be dry before the elections.” These are the narratives our media outlets should be publishing. Our nation has a collective intelligence that is smart and calculated and often homogenous.
Governments listen when the people figure out how to talk to them. We need think tanks, lobby groups, and media companies that publish the stories of our sameness and our aspirations more clearly. The government should hear that South Africans are more united than we are being led to believe. We are united enough. What we need now is economic growth. We need a Government of National Economic Growth. A GNEG. This is how the nappies come off.
The populace in turn must learn how to demand more course corrections. We must stamp our feet for fewer restrictions on trade, whether that comes in the form of BEE or registration of spaza shops. We can tell the government that their plan for BEE was a valid idea, but it had unintended consequences. The people won’t tolerate it anymore: like e-tolls, the VAT increase, and load-shedding. Bad laws can simply ‘tsek now. The R290 billion a year it costs us to enforce BEE policy can be applied where it matters – fixing infrastructure and creating a stable economy.
We must focus on publishing stories of our sameness and our common goals. The real national dialogue is already happening on the street level, amongst real people who understand its real-life consequences. Put that online, in print and on radio. The race-baiting has gone on long enough. Stop it! Aikona! Come on poepols, let’s get this country working.
