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ANC to blame for bad work ethic

Enough with the "South Africans are lazy" rant.

There is merit in the argument that South Africa's work ethic leaves much to be desired when measured on labour productivity compared with other countries.

But it is disingenuous for President Jacob Zuma's government to distance itself from the problem of low levels of industriousness and entrepreneurship among the ranks of especially black South Africans.

South Africans want to work, they want to be self-reliant, they want to be proud of the legacy they are creating for their children.

But many have been robbed of the dignity of work because the government has perpetuated an unsustainable culture of dependency on the state.

When Kenya got its independence in December 1963, the incoming independence government popularised the slogan "uhuru na kazi" (freedom and hard work). The message was that if the populace were to reap anything out of their new-found freedom, they would have to work for it.

When the ANC-led government took power in 1994 it adopted the redistribution and development programme (RDP). The RDP focused "on our people's most immediate needs . [relying], in turn, on their energies to meet these needs".

The ANC had the right idea. No development without the people's participation. The new government would focus on developing human capital and not only on delivering social goods.

But, like Jay Naidoo once admitted, the ANC moved without the people. It turned the people into clients that needed to be served, rather than able participants in their own development.

The ANC has been complicit in creating a bad work ethic. It is the ANC's abandonment of the approach of empowering the people to empower themselves and consulting them at every stage of their development that has contributed to the production of lazy South Africans.

Zuma is right to highlight that other Africans work hard and make use of every opportunity when they get to South Africa because they cannot rely on their governments to receive all sorts of freebies.

But what some of these other African governments got right is educating and skilling their citizens. Zimbabweans are well educated, Mozambicans are skilled artisans; that is why they can compete and win.

The role of the government is to create an environment in which citizens can exploit opportunities.

The government must concern itself with providing good quality education and improving infrastructure to enable businesses to thrive.

Its task is to establish, enforce and maintain the rule of law, to provide a functioning healthcare system so as to ensure a healthy workforce, and to put in place policies that are conducive to economic growth and job creation by business - big, medium and small.

When it got power, the ANC said its aspirations for the country's development were not just about making empty promises to win elections but identifying the real problems and addressing them.

The governing party has consistently identified the real problems but has not consistently prescribed the right remedies.

The entitlement mentality that South Africans are accused of having was cultivated by successive ANC administrations.

During electioneering, the people are promised a better life with no mention of the part they themselves have to play in achieving it.

It is the government that will deliver housing, provide jobs, clean the dirt and filth in their environment and give the people business opportunities.

All the people have to do to earn all this is vote for the party of liberation.

The ANC government has failed in rhetoric and in policy to inculcate in people that the fruits of freedom come only to those who work.

Notwithstanding that, the ANC has the power, as leader of the state, to set the tone for economic growth and job creation. By educating and skilling people and by setting the right industrial and labour policies, it can attain these goals. But the ANC in government is failing to instrumentalise this power.

The government has said much about re-industrialising the economy, about encouraging economic growth and creating black industrialists. But, to the contrary, it has presided over the de-industrialisation of the economy.

The manufacturing and agricultural sectors have declined under its stewardship - both of which were key contributors to job creation and could absorb the large numbers of unskilled labour.

The government allowed big corporates to list their assets on foreign stock exchanges. This robbed the country of internal-driven investment to promote employment, entrepreneurship and growth, as well as much-needed tax revenues to fund development.

These are the ingredients that leave South Africans at a disadvantage when faced with competition from people who realise the true value of hard work and are self-reliant.

Twenty-one years after we won our freedom, about 24% of citizens - 70% of those being youth - are unemployed, are ill-equipped and have not been able to enjoy the fruits of freedom.

Despite all the excuses that Zuma can muster to justify the chaos engulfing the nation, blame should be placed squarely at the ANC's door.

The ANC must decide whether it will take the tough decisions necessary to fix this country.

But perhaps, entranced by the trappings of power, it just doesn't have the will to change.

lComment on Twitter @nompumelelorunj

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