Six Reasons South Africans Can Feel Hopeful This Christmas

As the country celebrates Christmas, South Africa’s record on democracy, freedom, social progress, unity, fiscal discipline, and the ease of potential fixes offers a list of reasons for gratitude and cautious optimism.

Three decades after the end of apartheid, South Africa has managed two peaceful democratic transitions in a single generation. Voters first used the ballot box in 1994 to bring in a new democratic government, and again in 2024 to usher in a unity government. In a world where post-colonial change has often come through coups and uprisings, South Africa’s habit of changing course through elections remains one of its greatest assets.

The country also remains a fundamentally free and open society. South Africans can speak, write, organise, and campaign without fear that opposition leaders will be jailed or writers banned. When the state falls short, people are free to take responsibility for their own water, electricity, education, security, and healthcare. Those everyday acts of self-help would not sit easily in authoritarian systems, yet here they form part of the social safety net.

Measured against 1994, daily life has improved in many concrete ways. Roughly 50% of households were without electricity three decades ago, now the share is under 20%. The number of families in formal houses has tripled, and the share of homes with flush toilets has risen from about 50% to more than 80%. The number of people going out to work each day is roughly double what it was at the dawn of democracy. Where there were just 0.5 black university graduates for every white graduate in 1994, the ratio today is closer to 2 to 1. Per capita GDP is about one-third higher than it was then, while the murder rate is roughly 30% lower.

Contrary to the tone set by much social media, polling repeatedly shows that South Africa is not a society at war with itself. On emotive issues such as expropriation, transformation, and tax, there is remarkably little difference between the views of richer and poorer voters, younger and older people, and supporters of different parties. Across lines of class, history, and ideology, most South Africans still respect one another and wish each other well, a pattern that compares favourably with that evident in many Western democracies.

On the fiscal front, despite pressure and rising debt, Pretoria has avoided the temptation to print money to solve its problems. In many countries, governments facing economic strain have resorted to the printing press, stoking inflation that destroys living standards and erodes democratic checks. South Africa’s finance minister has instead pushed to slow debt growth and keep the public finances on a more disciplined path, often in the face of populist opposition.

Perhaps most encouraging is that the country’s biggest problems remain technically straightforward to solve. Market-friendly analysts argue that replacing race-based empowerment with rules that reward capital investment, job creation, tax contribution, and export earnings would unlock growth. A South Africa-first foreign policy that trades the country’s strategic location for preferential terms from partners from Washington to Beijing could deepen trade and investment. Using existing coal stations fully while building new nuclear and other generation capacity could stabilise power and lift growth into the 4% to 5% range. That, in turn, could pull unemployment down from above 30% towards 10% within a generation.

As South Africans celebrate Christmas today, these underlying strengths suggest that South Africa’s story is not one of inevitable decline. If the country can match its traditions of democratic change and personal initiative with practical reform, the next 30 years could yet deliver a safer, more prosperous home for all its people.

Pierneef was one of South Africa's greatest artists, known for his paintings of South African vistas. This column named after him aims to do something similar - sketch the broad vistas of South Africa's domestic landscape.