Where there is no solution there is no problem

South Africa’s one and only remedy is dead in the water

There comes a time when the correct and obvious course of action is no longer possible. Why? Simply because once you throw a brick it’s too late to “unthrow” it. In that quaint truism about a clock, one cannot turn it back. Some local and world events of late have lit up these hard facts of life. There are indeed problems that really have no solution. And since they can’t be solved, to all intents and purposes they cease to pose a problem.  

A standout case would be South Africa. The ‘brick thrown’ in 1994 kicked out Apartheid and kick started black majority rule. With that the die was cast. The inescapable reality (that escaped while Nelson Mandela’s magic lasted) set the country to follow Africa’s lamentable norm: it became a failed state. Generalities mostly come with an exception or two. I can’t think of any, but there may be black state after independence from colonial rule which developed economically, socially and peaceably. Otherwise it’s been a tale of decline and fall. New nations like Zimbabwe plummeted to rock bottom via brutal tyranny. South Africa has taken longer – two to three decades of workmanlike democracy – to bump along the bottom. Causes and trajectories differ but Africa’s post independence record has been rot. Objectors must prove their case or lie for their peace of mind and public image.         

Is it possible that South Africa could emulate the fabled Phoenix bird and rise again? Of clever discourse about how it could be done there’s no lack. Of solutions, the abundance is bewildering. But of reality there’s a vast yawning emptiness. And that’s because South Africa presents an example of a problem for which there really is no solution. The brick thrown in 1994 can’t be ‘unthrown’ nor the clock turned back.

“No solution” is not an absolute. It means that there is no practical solution. On paper there’ll always be one. But if it’s not a solution that can be chosen, never mind put into practice, it will be dead in the water. There happens to be a theoretical solution of that sort. It would tackle the nation’s underlying disease and not get waylaid by the symptoms that the disease presents. Of what use is a solution, however, that can never be accepted, not in South Africa and probably not anywhere outside of Utopia. What are we talking about here? What’s  

the fatal underlying disease and its symptoms that rotted a nation to the core that overrode everything going for it? The symptoms are well known; known so well that they get mistaken for the disease itself: corruption; breakdown of the rule of law and public services; policing that fails to police and schools that fail to educate; hospitals that are health risks; a power grid that supplies power when it can; public servants that put stealing before serving; a ruling party that rules for loot; no accountability and anything goes. As covid can’t be cured by treating the patient’s temperature, national sickness can’t be cured by treating the observable symptoms.

And the national sickness is... The missing five-letter factor MERIT. Every economic and social dimension heads to hell in a basket when jobs are filled leaving merit as an afterthought . From cabinet appointments to supermarket till women and packers, a duo of dumb kop rules prevails:

1.      What people look like (colour and gender)

2.      Political or family connections (not what you know but who you are or know)

To grasp why merit-free is the cause of the rot, think micro. Suppose you have zero merit to land a plum job in power utility Eskom. You get it on your colour of skin or gender or political and family connections. You got the job on a wink and a nod from some bigwig, who owes his job to another nob’s wink and nod. So there you sit, looking about from a plush executive chair. Fiddling with reports, wondering what they mean and what to do with them, all the while anticipating payday. Unearned jobs like unearned wealth are the mother of a witch’s brew that bubbles with incompetence, indolence, turpitude and brazen extravagance.  Dystopian city council meetings portray the chaos. Fisticuffs, election of clowns and thugs to keep the mayoral chair warm for a little while, horse trading, budget paralysis...even coarse Jew-baiting. As for big business, acquiescent or co-operative, it facilitates the whole circus. The VP of Business Unity SA was literally wedded to the ANC ruling elite. Industry leaders, instead of opposing depraved labour policies that discriminate against non-blacks, implement them, even enthusiastically.

But what’s the point; the correct and only remedy is not practical. Never mind Africa, in the enlightened West the very word ‘Merit’ is deemed racist. When there’s no solution spending time on unfixable problems is hardly more useful than twiddling thumbs. Both give the satisfaction of at least doing something. And so the old powerhouse of Africa limps along like a decrepit vagabond holding forth a rattling begging bowl.