By Ferial Haffajee
Ferial Haffajee writes; “If you only read the news episodically and it’s mostly from social media (how too many people read theirs), then you will live in a constant state of anxiety. Especially now. The world is in upheaval, with norms and geopolitics shifting daily.
This is why it’s worth following the long trends. Hans Rosling’s Factfulness and Rutger Bregman’s Humankind demonstrate that over the long term, the arc of human history curves toward progress and that humans are inherently (well, mostly says Ferial) kind and good. Sometimes, I use that sort of lens to take a breather and find a different news agenda.
Here are Six (other) Things you should know this week, casting South Africa (SA) in a different light:
- Growth could triple this year, says Absa
It’s off a low base, but as relations with the US hit the skids, this scenario by Absa Group run on TechCentral shows an upside to growth.
- EU deepens SA relations with big trade and energy package
- Adrian Gore reminds us about SA’s upside
Discovery CEO Adrian Gore is quite a thinker. This week, he wrote an opinion piece on News24 that I found persuasive. He makes good points:
We often see our country and economy as smaller than we really are.
We should hold a pragmatic middle ground.
Crime rates are coming down, according to data (Read Tim Cohen’s take on Gore here).
South Africa needs ruthless focus on growth and jobs (We also need lower medical aid rates, but that’s another story. Ed).
- Government’s fixers
I’m developing a series of reports about people who are fixing SA (Or trying their level best to. Ed). Rudi Dicks of Operation Vulindlela in the Presidency, is number one. This progress report from Operation Vulindlela, the red tape-cutting and focused project, has notched up important progress in energy, logistics (still nascent), and in bringing data costs down (not far enough, but still making progress). In the following weeks, I’ll introduce you to other people in this chart.
- Barbara Creecy gets rail more on track
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy did something quite revolutionary earlier this week. She issued a request for information to include private sector participation concessions on SA’s national rail network. Our logistics corridors are broken, so this is an opportunity to fix them so our exports can get to our ports (also broken but being fixed. Ed) and to markets with consumers to buy them. A small step, but an immense one.
- Our Electricity Minister’s got sparks
Stephen Grootes’s profile of Electricity Minister Kgosientsho “Sputla” Ramokgopa reveals his style and looks at his future. This week, Eskom’s Kusile final unit finally came to the national grid, adding 800MW of new
For every one of these six points, we could add a “yes, but” or that popular South African phrase “but the problem is”. Sometimes it’s worth taking a breather and a slightly longer view instead.
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