It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Very Different Christmas
As well as some intriguing ways of saving South Africa
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And not the usual Christmas in a bikini, on the beach. As an example, here’s a direct comparison between a long distance run I did last December holiday, and the one I did this morning:
I have officially set off for my gap year in Europe, and München has welcomed me with twinkling lines, steamy Glühwein, and, well, cold.
Before I set off, though, I spent a few weeks in the Western Cape in South Africa, saying goodbye to my extended family and getting enough of a tan to last me through the European winter. In Knysna, as I mentioned in my previous newsletter, I bought my dad Bruce Whitfield’s The One Thing for Christmas. Now that I’ve fully sampled it before gifting it to him, I have a bunch of takeaways to share. These are ideas of how to save South Africa (some of them quite wacky) that I found particularly intriguing from the responses Whitfield collected from various South African leaders and entrepreneurs.
Sports
Mike Abel and Grant Pattison both referenced the unifying effect that the Springboks team has had on the nation.
Just this last weekend, South Africa thrashed Wales in rugby; a victory I joyously watched with my family in Cape Town.
But more than just bringing families and friends together to watch, the mixed bag that makes up the Springbok national team is a beautiful (albeit very rough and sometimes bloody) display of all races working together for extraordinary results, in a historically all-white team.
Pattison boldly declares that he would make Springbok captain Siya Kolisi Minister of Sport, and his coach Rassie Erasmus Deputy, with the clear objective to bring in World Cups for all sports disciplines, by training 10 000 talented young athletes over a decade. This would amplify the shared national pride and healing the Springboks have caused.
Having read Kolisi’s inspiring autobiography Rise, I feel Pattison does have a point about raising incredible leaders out of adverse circumstances through the vehicle of sports. This must send out such an encouraging message for other skilled youth in similar positions. Yesterday in the plane, I watched a beautiful documentary called Young Woman and the Sea. It is about the first woman to swim across the English Channel, and similarly what stood out to me was the encouragement for other young people that stems from breaking boundaries.
So, though author Bruce Whitfield prefaces Pattison’s sports ministry reshuffling with “this will not resonate with everyone”, I can kind of see the value of focusing on sports. Of course, sports won’t solve all problems, but it’s a start.
Trains
Editor-in-chief of News24 Adrian Basson wrote that he would commission the construction of a high-speed train between Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, and Mbombela to capitalize on South Africa’s new gold - tourism. A bullet train could get you from Joburg to the Cape in under five hours (a car drive that takes us two to three days every December holiday). Or to Mbombela, for a Kruger safari in under an hour.
On 27 November, I arrived in Germany. I’ve been taking the train everyday from Pullach, where I’m staying, to Munich. This allows me to explore the awesome city, such as this cool river wave:
This ease, safety and freedom of travel is what, in part, prompted me to choose Europe as a gap year destination - everything’s just so simple. Getting from A to B is both a breeze and affordable.
Thousands of jobs would be created in the construction of the railway, and its completion would boost the economies of interesting inland towns that tourists would generally just fly over.
The Internet
Would I even be a GenZer if I didn’t mention the internet?
Jason Love argues that the internet has been the biggest enabler in the last 30 years, but is largely still out of reach of many due to paywalls. He advocates for the zero-rating of certain websites and apps to allow the youth, the unemployed, and low-income families to access development without the temptation of using precious, expensive data on gambling, gaming, and goods. He suggests the following programs be zero-rated: job-seeking platforms, service and payment platforms, and education platforms.
Furthermore, Alexandria Procter referenced the shocking fact that the average cost of 1GB of data in SA is R50, compared to R1.70 in India and R5.10 in Nigeria. Procter would immediately remove regulatory barriers to allow for more internet service providers to set up (including Starlink) in order to drive prices down through competition.
The benefits of the internet cannot be underestimated. The internet is what affords you the marvelous opportunity to read this newsletter.
But seriously…e-commerce, telemedicine, job-seeking, networking, teleworking, education…all allowed, or at least greatly enhanced, by the internet.
Education
Of course, as the founder of Fundza Kids, this one is pretty big for me. Unsurprisingly, the book had lots of education recommendations.
A few people mentioned early childhood education, particularly for grade 0s, and even grade 00s and grade 000s. However, it was Mark Barnes’ comment on the need for accessible free education, in the form of Conditional Free Education fund that I found particularly interesting. He proposes that all employers with over 50 employees contribute 1% of annual turnover to the fund. This money is granted to any learner accepted into a South African tertiary institution. Participating employers would be paid back in full for the employment of beneficiaries of the fund. At once, this solution addresses SA’s high unemployment, poverty, and equality (though not quite because those with poor educational backgrounds are not as likely to be accepted into universities).
Another interesting solution is Jeremy Gardiner’s. He suggests a voluntary ‘national service’ for unemployed youth who live in the areas surrounding unused military bases. They would be fed, clothed, sheltered, and learn a trade like plumbing, electrics, or building. They would then be employed by the government for a year to grant them the experience required to find meaningful employment.
Talking about education, when I bought Whitfield’s The One Thing for my dad in Bargain Books, I was encouraged to add a R10 donation for Starting Chance.
Upon reading the poster at the counter, I discovered that Starting Chance is an early childhood organization aimed at, well, giving 0-6 year olds a starting chance in life. I shot them an email, thinking they’d be an ideal Fundza Kids partner/beneficiary. So far, I’ve had one meeting with Starting Chance, and it sounds like we’ll be able to have a partnership.
Gov Spending
South Africa’s government spending is enough material to supply Trevor Noah shows for all eternity - in other words, a total joke.
Wayne Duvenge proposed transparency and public oversight of all public sector procurement through a live, digital environment. Sounds a bit like a block-chain-y system of bids/quotations process and the quality delivered. This would fight corruption, such as the spending of R12m (about $700 000) on just ten simple toilets for an Eastern Cape school.
Leadership
All the interesting ideas I selected from the book are drastic changes that require massive pushes and energetic leaders. Gidon Novick’s one thing seems perfect for this - the introduction of ‘SAvants’, who have the following qualities plus a few extra ones:
Young
Intellectually and emotionally intelligent
Purpose-driven
Collaborative
These young leaders would be appointed on a five-year contract, after a rigorous recruitment process. They would be tasked with addressing the top ten challenges/opportunities chosen by the president, working closely with existing ministries but reporting straight to the president. SAvants would receive outcome-based remuneration, in line with top corporate salaries in South Africa. They would be encouraged to experiment, seeking high returns on investment in terms of impact.
Disconnection
You may have noticed that not many names from Bruce Whitfield’s The One Thing sound like they belong to a black person, yet black people make up 81% of South Africa’s population. The sad truth is that the people in top positions and private sector leadership - the people Bruce Whitfield was reaching out to - are predominately white. 78% of CEOs in South Africa are white. It thus follows that the book is a bit limited in perspective, as the contributors are somewhat disconnected from the harsh realities of those who live in the townships (although some, like GG Alcock are quite definitively not).
Holidaying in the Capetonian suburbs, though lush and enjoyable, left me with an undertone of discomfort. Entering Cape Town, we drove past the wall-to-wall shacks of Langa and other townships. Eventually the corrugated iron ended, transforming abruptly into a vast and almost disgustingly green golf course. The remnants of Apartheid are still painfully visible.
I’m flooded with mixed emotions as I leave my country. When I come back, will I truly be able to activate some sort of positive change? I want to live a comfortable life in a beautiful place, but I don’t want it to be at the expense of others, and I don’t want to just be another part of the massive inequality in South Africa (which has the world’s highest Gini coefficient). I think dealing with this moral dilemma and these uncomfy thoughts is very important if I want a future in South Africa.
On that note, I’ll leave you with this artwork by Vusi Khumalo that struck me. I saw it in the Everard Read gallery in Franschoek, one of the most expensive towns in South Africa. I think it addresses, in a subtle way, the whitewashing (no pun intended) of townships, and how many just turn a blind eye to the poverty and physical divide that is the lasting legacy of Apartheid.
At the beginning of Bruce Whitfield’s book, he mentioned this quote from Melinda Gates:
“Optimism isn’t the belief that things will automatically get better; it’s the conviction that we can make things better.”
I’m optimistic about South Africa’s future, but I know it needs a lot, a LOT of work. And I still think I want to be a part of making that work happen, in whatever small or big way I can.