According to The Economist, 80% of South Africans think the country is on the wrong track. The biggest concern is corruption. The ANC responds by urging ever-faster transformation — enforced ever more harshly by the government. But does forced, targeted socioeconomic transformation work in the longer run? Are we not merely discarding much of our minorities’ stores of intangible social and human capital? The approach has created a rapidly growing black middle class — but is this sustainable? If whites have to struggle ever harder to enter the economic playing field are we not merely refining a dwindling pool and thereby perpetuating a monopoly in white skills? Is a free ride good for the majority? The time has come to abandon forced transformation. Overwhelming numbers coupled with a generation of experience post-1994 has placed blacks in a position to play on the same field as all others without any handicaps or preferences. Demographic representativity will in time follow. Willem C...
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