Former Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas has highlighted inequality, poverty and the electricity crisis as major challenges facing the country. He says it is disturbing that these issues have been normalised.
Jonas gave a keynote address at Nelson Mandela University during the inaugural Govan Mbeki Lecture under the theme: “Navigating global and domestic turmoil: the urgent need for visionary collaborative leadership”.
Jonas says the promise of a better life is an illusion. He lambasted the current leadership’s inability to take the country out of the current crisis.
“In South Africa, load shedding, unemployment and food insecurity have reached a record high. The promise of a better life for all is an illusion. As a collective, we are emotional, exhausted about the state of our country but also anxious about the future.,” decries Jonas.
The warning signs of a failed state are ringing in South Africa: Jonas Mcebisi
Speaking at the lecture, Professor Somadoda Fikeni says the key to a better state is solution-driven leadership and breaking the obstacles one step at a time.
“So, we have such a disconnect and dishonesty where we are not saying this one problem is because of Jan Van Riebeeck and Malan Verwoerd. This one is because of you guys who are in charge,” says Fikeni.
Eskom’s inability to provide reliable power expected to hit economy hard:
