SIKONATHI MANTSHANTSHA: Ramaphosa’s task is to deliver on 25 years of ANC promises
Cyril Ramaphosa's task is to do right by the people; to finally deliver on the promises of peace, jobs and freedom
It was German statesman Otto von Bismarck who said the great problems of his day would not be solved by speeches and majority votes, but "by iron and blood". Of course he was talking about waging war to address the pressing issues of 19th-century Europe, and using guns and bullets and losing blood to do so. In SA today, we know the first part of his speech was truly prophetic, the last part plainly idiotic. This week Stats SA reported the unemployment rate crept higher to 27.6% in the first three months of the year. And that’s only the rate favoured by the government. At 38%, the real unemployment rate is too embarrassing. It is the stuff of revolutions. In the developed world, unemployment rates half of that have brought down governments.So the government had to find a more palatable number to quote. Even the official rate is more than double the 13.9% jobless rate of Spain and almost twice that of Turkey. Of course these economies are not at all comparable to ours. Still.As Presid...
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