“If governments enter the next pandemic already trapped in debt and austerity, you have lost before the virus arrives.
“The most dangerous co-morbidity is inequality. It shapes who gets infected, who gets treated, who recovers and whose economy survives.”
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said this as the Global Council on Inequality, Aids and Pandemics released its findings at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) recently.
The council warned that the next pandemic would be enabled by the relatively poor state of economies.
This and the chosen interventions to deal with debt and poor economic growth are hobbling any possible preparations for the next pandemic.
The council’s warning changes what is usually seen as a medical issue into an issue of economics and inequality.
None of us like to think about the next pandemic, particularly when we are pressed by the seemingly more urgent social and economic crises.
SA is the most unequal country in the world, with one of the highest levels of unemployment.
We have a political leadership which is complicit in the endemic corruption, poor policy choices and governance that have produced a weak and crumbling economy.
The most critical institutions of intervention, such as the police, among other institutions, have been hollowed out to serve the foolish ends of political expediency.
Evidence from the Covid-19 pandemic does not offer much hope for us either.
If radical changes in political leadership are not put in place, we are at risk that budgets set aside to deal with the next pandemic will be stolen.
So, not only are we woefully unprepared, but even what little we might have should another pandemic hit, would be at serious risk of being stolen by the very people tasked to lead.
Unless we become serious about turning SA around, we will continue to watch our future being stolen and spent on nefarious causes and luxury goods.
SA needs a complete reset. While the Madlanga Commission and the parliamentary ad hoc committee are dealing with the rot within the police service and the justice system, far more work needs to be done.
Despite President Cyril Ramaphosa’s hyped economic reforms, his efforts are inadequate and do not reflect the seriousness of our situation.
The continued defence of cadre deployment, B-BBEE, and other mechanical and ideological policy interventions as currently executed, reflect a lack of appreciation for the extent of the crises we face.
It is tragic that many African countries, such as SA, seem to require a complete meltdown, a revolution or an uprising before reality sets in.
Usually by that time, it is almost impossible to reverse the decline; and attempts to contain the chaos often become the fuel for further chaos and decline.
Perhaps we need to view this moment, with warnings from the Global Council on Inequality, Aids and Pandemics, the Madlanga Commission and the parliamentary ad hoc committee, as a pivotal moment.
If we miss this moment to turn our country around, we might not get another chance.
One of the things the council, co-chaired by Stiglitz does, is to elevate the issue of inequality.
Stiglitz’s work on inequality has obviously influenced this.
The council points out that inequality needs to be treated just like climate change and understood to be just as dangerous.
As a result, the council proposes a global approach to inequality considering its central role as a catalyst of pandemics, which in turn threaten health, security and economies on a global scale.
Though the council is focusing on the effects of inequality on the next pandemic, its identification of inequality as a significant factor in economic development helps us see more clearly.
Considering inequality is a serious problem in SA, we should also focus our efforts on combating inequality as a strategic approach to turning our economy around.
The only problem is how we should do this.
Many people who propose using redistribution and race-based policies think they are doing the same thing, yet redistributive efforts have not given us the desired results after more than 30 years.
Instead, our policies need to concentrate on economic mobility which is automatically inclusive.
At the core of that approach should be serious investment in lean, relevant and focused human resource development.
Sustained investment in developing our people, particularly the youth, will ensure the desired by-product is capacity, innovation, entrepreneurship and business development in all sectors of our economy.
Unfortunately, this cannot be run by a rotten administration manned by bribe soliciting officials.
We need to be serious about cleaning up our government.
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