JONNY STEINBERG: Public institutions that Zuma broke must be fixed to protect markets
Former president has clouded the thinking of many who consider him SA’s greatest foe
Among the worst wounds our enemy can inflict on us is to cloud our thinking. And I fear Jacob Zuma has clouded the thinking of many of those who consider him SA’s greatest foe. For what the “nine wasted years” have shown us, more and more people are beginning to say, is that from public institutions we can expect only trouble; the one hope for the future is that they clear out of the way and allow the market to do its work. That seems to me an alarming proposition, for there is no sane world in which there is only a market. To expose a country to global economic forces without protection is a sure way to kill it. And the only way to protect a country is with decent public institutions. The choice is not between states and regulators on the one hand and markets on the other; it is for both to be as strong as they can be. That is why fixing what Zuma has broken is so important; not to get public institutions out of the way, but to make them work properly again. I am not sure how many ...
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