INEQUALITY
Poor education keeps most of population in servitude
The current dependence on a small wealthy elite is not healthy and does not augur well for the country’s future stability and prosperity
Despite, and maybe because of, nearly a quarter-century of employment equity, black economic empowerment (BEE) and populist promises of social transformation, economic power remains concentrated in a small elite who become richer and more powerful while the economy stagnates, unable to provide jobs to new entrants and resulting in one of the most unequal and corrupt societies in the world — with no improvement in sight. If the government had appreciated and built the economic foundations of an effective basic education system, as the Asian countries did after colonialism, the existing economic elite would now have serious competition. But they are in demand and as key to the economy as before. Instead, cosmetic variables, material status and satisfying the authorities are valued above building skills, creating jobs and wealth, inevitably resulting in rent-seeking, patronage and corruption. BEE has encouraged people unproductively to blame others for what is wrong: as if one group mu...
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