The Common Sense’s Diary

Marco Rubio was good at the Munich Security Conference. The most important line from his speech was, “We have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline.” The most important word in his speech was “reciprocity”. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Therein lies the formula South Africa needs to follow if it is to secure a trade and investment pact with Washington.

Pretoria is not so sure. The Republicans seem set for a drubbing in the November midterms and will almost certainly lose the House, and perhaps the Senate. The loss of the House alone marks the end of President Donald Trump’s legislative journey. Matched with the anticipated overturning of key tariff policies by the US Supreme Court, the South Africans may think they have Washington cornered. That read is off. Trump may not be able to legislate after November and Congress may be deadlocked, but South Africa still needs a vast new investment pact with America and that requires being on good terms.

South Africa’s Chief Rabbi was good on YouTube again this week. He set out the argument for how Western institutions have progressively, the right word, surrendered the common moral values that once underpinned Western civilisation. He went further to point out how those values are common to the great majority of South Africans and how their restoration is a necessary condition for South Africa’s future success and the prosperity of all its people. That kind of national moral leadership from clergy is something South Africa has not had for 30 years. The comments on the rabbi’s channel suggest the demand for it is vast.

It was wonderful to see his comments on coming together around common values. That’s exactly the thing. The rabbi is a brave man who fights for his flock in the finest tradition of religious leaders who care about people. But he also called Roedean a “great school”, which it is, and preached reconciliation and peace and common ground. There was even a message for the African National Congress (ANC) about coming together with the Jewish community.

That message to the ANC was important. No-one wants to perpetually fight the ANC. Not their own members, Johannesburg’s voters, MAGA-America, the Jews, the local business community, or anyone else. It is just that the ANC often offers them little choice but to take it to task. It’s staggering, in fact, to think how many South African and global constituencies are in some way forced into fighting the ANC. It’s exhausting. They’d all support the reset the rabbi wants – if the ANC would just given them all a break.

Another task team or committee or similar has been announced to fix Johannesburg’s water woes. Some suburbs are going without regular supply for weeks. Governing politicians say that is what many South Africans experienced under apartheid. True. But hardly the point and hardly what the ANC had in mind 30 years ago. Some frustrated residents have been asking politicians to smell them at meetings. That it has come to this. The Premier of Gauteng complained that he often has to take showers at exclusive Sandton hotels, the inhumanity.

Has the Democratic Alliance (DA) divided its forces to fight on two fronts? Helen Zille is engaged in Johannesburg and Geordin Hill-Lewis may soon be engaged in managing the whole party and its Government of National Unity (GNU) efforts. That means that two key people responsible for national strategy and the jewel in the party’s governance crown are distracted from those roles. It is risky.

A DA tweet or similar announced that 400 cows had been vaccinated in a “massive” drive. That reeks of desperation. The foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) situation is a mess and it may be best to admit it and play straight with voters. Farmers are not fools and detest politicians putting lipstick on pigs (pigs are dying in great numbers from the FMD plague). What a problem, as the solution depends on John Steenhuisen, who now draws his monthly wages only through the good graces of the man who leads the ANC.

The SONA speech was interesting for how keen President Cyril Ramaphosa was to advertise the good things the government achieved over the past year, from the ratings upgrade to the grey list escape to hosting a good G20 and a few others. It’s all actually quite odd. The government and Mr Ramaphosa seem genuinely delighted when things go right for them, but then do so little to make sure that more things do. The successes announced by the president are real and good, but they are also very modest, especially relative to the potential of the country. Perhaps we must first come together on these common values.