Assessing GNU Foundations: Are they strong enough for South Africa?

THOSE in the know say building a house can cost anything from R10 000 to R20 000 per square meter, with factors such as location, quality of the material used, and design complexity capable of significantly raising costs—with high-end houses costing upwards of R25 000 per square meter.

A hefty price to pay, but one well worth it when sitting in the confines of your beautiful investment. Despite the actual cost of your house, what is clear to many is the importance of building a house within your price range, one that your income is capable of maintaining as the years roll on.

South Africa is no stranger to paying the price of acquiring a place one can proudly call home. Having clawed its way out of the oppressive apartheid regime, an understanding of how the right leadership can result in progress in leaps and bounds is something many share.

The likes of Nelson Mandela laid the foundation that supported the rainbow nation for many years. With a brag-worthy house standing on a firm foundation, Mandela and Thabo Mbeki ensured its maintenance made for happy residents.

With the title deed in the wrong hands and maintenance constantly being ignored, what were once square meters of joy, unity, prosperity and growth slowly morphed into something derelict? A country in desperate need of strong leadership that wasn’t self-serving finally made its voice heard in its 2024 national election.

The results of that election made it clear that change and restoration would need to be a collaborative effort. With no single party receiving the majority vote, leadership was compelled to work together. Put in a position where the strengths of many diverse views and capabilities could be relied on, many are waiting with bated breath to see if the Government of National Unity (GNU) will lay the right foundation necessary for restoration.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) echoes the outcome of the election that birthed the country’s first official GNU, with him stating that “we agree on one thing: that we need to build a better South Africa and improve the well-being of our people”. As with building a house, building or rebuilding a nation requires financial resources. Dreaming beyond your means could result in either the house (or rebuilt nation) never actually materialising or in unaffordable and unsustainable plans set in motion.

The most critical question now is whether South Africa’s plans to rebuild consider the country’s financial capabilities, as well as whether the right projects are prioritised. So, let’s take a look at some of the rebuilding exercises that will require funds for “bricks and mortar” touched on by the President in his latest Sona.

Plans to achieve economic growth of 3% by 2029 will no doubt require adequate investment in infrastructure such as roads, rail, water, and electricity. This will in turn mean ensuring municipalities and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) act on their mandate—therefore eliminating the risk of mismanagement of funds and fruitless or wasteful expenditure.

Accountability, therefore, needs to be the tune sung in corridors, and there is no better way to ensure accountability than it being witnessed within government and leadership itself. While the President referenced the need for infrastructure development and the need for accountability within organs of the state, enforcement—especially higher up in the ladder—is what will set the tone and deter any future mismanagement.

A house with faulty wiring is bound to have many electrical faults; the presidential electrician, therefore, needs to embark on an exercise of rewiring the culture within many organs of state.

Protecting the rights of citizens is one of the foundations of any constitution, and South Africa is no different. With the right to healthcare featuring in our constitution. While plans to move forward with National Health Insurance (NHI) were made clear by the President, one can’t help but wonder whether this proposal has gone through the necessary formulation process to ensure its success.

In an ideal world, the NHI’s introduction should only have been considered once enough traction had been made at improving healthcare services for citizens not on medical aid. Implementing NHI given the country’s status quo places unnecessary pressure on an already constrained economy.

As mentioned by the President, hospitals will need refurbishing or building, and healthcare professionals will require additional training—all of which will come at a cost and one that needs to be incurred in a rushed state as these would need to be in place before our NHI child is born. The rushed implementation of NHI could unfortunately end up crippling the already unstable foundations of the country’s healthcare.

Talks of implementing technology in an attempt to rebuild public service will come at its own financial cost. This includes giving South Africans access to digital public infrastructure—all in an attempt to improve their engagement with the government. However, given the fact that in 2023 roughly half the population had access to smartphones, one may question the premature nature of this initiative.

Should the focus at the moment rather not be on poverty-alleviating measures—minimising the number of South Africans dependent on government grants first? Plans such as these only make real sense once a greater proportion of the population has access to the tools necessary to properly benefit from such initiatives. Failing which, one is simply installing an electric garage to a house with no access to electricity.

An effective means of alleviating poverty is ensuring that the population receives quality education. It was reassuring to hear the President mention the importance of education; however, the plan proposed in his Sona may need revisiting.

While learning in your mother tongue would prove beneficial while in school, it poses a potential problem once an education higher than matric is sought. Having grasped concepts in the mother tongue, students may struggle with now having to learn in English—a medium that many higher education institutions teach.

Should the plan to teach in mother tongues be executed, then it follows that resources would need to be dedicated to ensuring that this level of education is also available later in life. Failing which, the children coming out of our schooling systems will be cleanly washed windows with multiple cracks in them—the view outside is visible, but the cracks in the window detract from the beauty of what you are beholding.

While these goals are noble and are also not insurmountable, careful planning, properly timed and prioritised projects, and adequate resources are required to ensure they come to fruition. We have clawed our way out of the dark before, and with the right leadership (setting realistically achievable and executable goals), we can do it again.

What is imperative at this point in the game is ensuring that we talk a talk that we are able to and actually end up walking. Hopefully, the 2025 National Budget reflects foresight by those in power with regard to what can and should be done immediately and what can be postponed for a time when the country is standing on firmer foundations.

* Nomvula Masehla is the project director for tax publications at SAICA. The views expressed here are her own.

** The views expressed here do not reflect those of Sunday Independent, Independent Media and IOL