Lack of trust darkens the skies of Ramaphosa’s ‘new dawn’
Under new leadership, SA is moving the right way in terms of a ‘social contract’ but such a contract requires trust — and that takes time
President Cyril Ramaphosa talks often of the need for a "social contract" to drive positive change in SA. The idea hinges on the conviction that society’s challenges are too great for unilateral efforts to make much of an impact, and so the government, business and civil society need to collaborate to generate solutions. There’s just one problem: like any "contract" that goes beyond just being a piece of paper, the social contract requires that parties trust one another. And this is not something we are very good at in SA.
There are mixed views on how the president’s first 100 days in office have gone, but it would be fair to say that the so-called Ramaphoria has subsided, and what looked like a "new dawn" may have been an optimistic forecast. The recent news that the Gupta family members has won their case to have their luxury assets unfrozen, owing, apparently, to ineptitude at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), was particularly disturbing to hear. More generally, tho...
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