Research organisation blasts Zuma for blaming problems on ‘rich white capitalists’

By Tom Head – July 3, 2017

Image Credits: www.canva.com

South Africa has been called many things this year: Junk, in recession, state captured… Now we can add ‘a fragile state’ to that list. Man, we are blessed.

The findings came from the work of the Fragile States Index (FSI) who annually rate 178 countries based on their economic performance and governmental stability: Two things that Zuma and the gang have effectively thrown into the Atlantic.

Read: South Africa slips two places on global democracy index

This is how their ratings work: On a scale of 0-100 points, zero is considered to be the best rating possible. Like a utopia where cheesecake is currency. The nearer a value gets to a hundred, the worse state thAT country is in.

South Africa, ranked at 72.3, isn’t just flirting with danger. We are taking it up the aisle and exchanging vows with it. In fact, these statistics get even more depressing as they unravel…

What the FSI said about South African stability:

. SA is 16.6 points worse off than in 2006, where they recorded a score of 55.7 and were within the ‘stable’ category

. Only five other countries have seen their stability ratings plunge further in the last 10 years – Syria, Yemen, Libya, Senegal and Mali.

. South Africa’s nosedive now sees them billed as a country with an ‘elevated warning’ status


Countries in Green and lighter shades are generally improving. Those in darker shades and in red or worsening. South Africa currently looks like Rudolph’s nose. (Fragile States Index)
The FSI is a non-profit organisation operating out of Washington DC. Their assessment of what’s going wrong in the Rainbow Nation could not be more damning. Zuma supporters – all three of you – might want to look away now.

“Rather than taking steps to boost the economy, President [Jacob] Zuma recently fired the widely respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan, and has begun to promise radical economic transformation, including land distribution, that worryingly echoes the past experience of Zimbabwe.”

“Racial scapegoating has also served as a means for blaming the economy’s ills on ‘rich white capitalists’ rather than on governmental mismanagement of the economy or failure to provide basic services.”

“As the country’s economy stagnates, inequality grows, and politicians continue to bicker and scapegoat rather than address the country’s underlying problems, the prognosis for South Africa will remain worrisome.”

At least Zuma’s dismantling of the democracy SA has fought for is not going unnoticed by the rest of the world. Crumbs of comfort do not get any smaller than this.

 

FSI: Only civil war-torn countries are in a more fragile state than South Africa