ALEXANDER PARKER: A Victorian solution for our Victorian problems almost prevailed. Let’s revive it
The usual ideological suspects are said to have killed talks about a ‘social contract’ among big businesses, labour and other partners
Surging food price inflation makes me anxious. These things get properly measured in time, but just looking out of the window it seems SA’s inequality is deteriorating quickly. If you visit less affluent neighbourhoods it’s clear that working people are struggling. Outside the leafy suburbs, the country can feel like a scene from the early Victorian period, in which the chasm between the haves and the have-nots widened alarmingly.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency colleagues were, until recently, working on a very Victorian solution to our country’s problems — a deep, serious and specific discussion about a “social contract” among big businesses, labour and other social partners. I am told it is now dead in the water, killed off by the usual ideological suspects in cabinet, despite having come close to being adopted by everyone else...
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