South Africa’s democracy works

South Africa has experienced two democratic post-colonial transitions. This is a record largely unique to post-colonial societies. In 1994, South Africans voted for change, leading to a power transfer to a new democratic government. In 2024, South Africans again voted for change, leading to a power transfer to the unity government. Countries change either peacefully or violently (since the end of colonial rule in the 1950s, Africa has experienced almost 250 coups and other violent changes of government), and one of South Africa’s greatest assets is that its politics changes through the ballot box.

South Africa is a free society

South Africa remains a fundamentally free and open society. You can say or write whatever you like. You can form a civic organisation to challenge the state or a political party to contest for power. Opposition leaders are not thrown in prison, and writers are not summarily banned. One of the greatest freedoms South Africans exercise is to take care of their own water, electricity, education, security, and healthcare needs when the state fails. These are things that would not be easily tolerated in fascist or closed societies.

Your efforts and those of your fellow South Africans have made the country a better place for all its people

South Africa this Heritage Day is a better society than it was 30 years ago. In 1994, roughly 50% of South Africans were without electricity connected to their homes; now that number is under 20%. The number of families living in a formal house has tripled. The share of families with flush toilets is up from around 50% to over 80%. The number of people going to work every day is twice what it was at the dawn of democracy. In 1994, there were 0.5 black university graduates in the country for every 1 white graduate, but today that ratio is 2:1. Per capita GDP is roughly a third higher than it was in 1994. The murder rate is roughly 30% lower.

South Africa remains a united society

Poll data shows time and again that, contrary to the impression created by legacy media companies and social media, South Africa is not a society divided against itself. Even on the hottest policy issues such as expropriation, transformation, and taxation, there is very little difference in the views of poor and rich South Africans, old and young, ANC voters and DA voters. More than that, South Africans respect each other across every line of class, history, ideology, and socio-economic status, and wish the best for each other. This is different to the situation in much of the world, including in Western Europe and North America.

The government is not printing

One of the things governments do when they’re under pressure and fear losing power is print money. They do this so that they can create inflation, in order to wreck the living standards of people, in order to create populist anger that they can apply to destroying democratic institutions and clinging to power. The example of Zimbabwe is close to home for many South Africans. Whilst South African government debt levels have risen sharply over the past decade, and whilst the budget deficit has increased to where it is a multiple of the economic growth rate, South Africa’s finance minister has done a lot to exercise downward pressure on the debt curve, often in the face of much populist opposition from leftist activists.

It is easy to fix the problems

To fix South Africa is easy. Adopt sensible empowerment policies that award empowerment points for capital committed to the economy, jobs created, tax paid, and export revenue earned. Adopt a South Africa-first foreign policy that trades South Africa’s geo-strategic assets for preferential trade and investment terms from Washington to Beijing. Don’t expropriate for less than market value. Burn the coal we already have in the coal stations we already have for the next decade as we build new nuclear and other capacity, and South Africa will have more than enough electricity to take the economic growth rate to between 4% and 5%. And if that all happens, the 30%+ unemployment rate of today will fall to nearer 10% within a generation, and South Africa will be a great place to live for all its people. Have a happy Heritage Day.