It is fashionable now to propose solutions to the myriad problems arising from the collapse of the capacity of the South African state. The police, we are told, should be fixed through budget increases, large-scale recruitment, new task teams, or better Community Police Forums. Schools need improved curricula and lower pupil-to-teacher ratios. Local government requires greater capital expenditure and less corruption. Ports and railways need public-private partnerships.

All of that is well and good, but none of it will work as intended if the people responsible for implementing those ideas are not competitively selected on the grounds that they are the best available. In South Africa, that principle is not merely absent from government policy, it is actively discouraged. Even major private corporations confidently advertise that merit is a secondary consideration in much of their recruitment.

That places the country at a considerable disadvantage to its competitors. China does not deliberately select the B-team to administer its economy. Nor does India. In the United States, the Trump administration has sought to restore merit as the central principle of federal recruitment following the Biden years. Much of Europe and the United Kingdom have moved in the opposite direction, with weak growth, social instability, and the rise of right-wing political movements reflecting the ensuing public frustration.

Countries do not grow rich simply because they possess natural resources or enjoy favourable geographical positions. They grow rich because of the human and intellectual capital applied to making those resources, and the institutions that govern them, productive.

In South Africa, that point is often met with the accusation that it is racist, but black expertise is just as constrained as white expertise by appointment policies that subordinate competence to racial classification and political considerations, particularly where those policies provide cover for corruption and cadre deployment. And, of course, the victims of South Africa’s affirmative action policies are the millions of unemployed and under-educated black South Africans who cannot find work because the economy is allowed to remain uncompetitive and the schools are run by people who couldn’t pass matric at a high level themselves.

Merit, to the exclusion of every other consideration, must become the central principle for recruitment and promotion across government, universities, and major corporations if South Africa is to become successful.

Make this practical in its application. Want to work in government? Then pass a competitive entrance examination.

The Chinese understood this more than 1 000 years ago. As early as the seventh century, candidates seeking entry into the imperial bureaucracy were subjected to extraordinarily demanding examinations covering Confucian philosophy, literature, ethics, and the principles of government. Candidates might spend years preparing, with only a small minority progressing to the highest levels. The significance was that China established, centuries before comparable systems became widespread in Europe, the principle that entry into government should depend on demonstrated intellectual ability rather than political or inherited privilege.

Modern China retains that principle in a different form. Millions compete for civil service positions through examinations testing numerical reasoning, analytical ability, reading comprehension, policy analysis, and administrative judgment. Successful candidates face interviews and further screening.

South Africa should adopt that lesson. Imagine a system in which entry into public administration, from a small municipality to the National Treasury, required candidates to pass rigorous, independently administered examinations in literacy, numeracy, economic reasoning, administrative law, and practical problem-solving. Imagine further that promotions depended on demonstrated competence and performance rather than political connections.

Such a system would, on its own, resolve a lot of policy failure, even in the absence of technical reforms. Capable people by their nature devise solutions and overcome obstacles. Do that, and much else will begin to fall into place.