South Africa must get rid of the ANC to fix the country – Dawie Roodt

Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt says the ANC does not know what makes a modern economy work and what policies are needed to expand it.

He added that to fix the South African economy, the country would need to get rid of the ANC, as they still believe in outdated communist ideologies.

Roodt shared his views during a discussion with Ernst van Zyl, titled “How the ANC broke South Africa’s economy”.

He explained that these outdated communist ideologies result in poor policies, which in turn damage the economy.

Another problem is cadre deployment, in where people are appointed to important positions based on loyalty to the party instead of merit.

“Another word for the ANC’s cadre deployment policy is incompetence. That means you get incompetent people appointed in certain positions,” he said.

The ANC is also known for corruption, where individuals connected to the party become wealthy through illicit dealings with the state.

Following the Covid-19 PPE looting spree, President Cyril Ramaphosa sent a letter to the ANC, saying that “we have allowed corruption to continue and, at times, to flourish within our ranks.”

“The ANC may not stand alone in the dock, but it does stand as accused number one. This is the stark reality that we must now confront.”

Roodt added that the number of true ideologues—good people with the wrong ideas—is starting to dwindle.

“Many of the senior leaders in the ANC today call themselves socialists, but in reality, they are only there to enrich themselves,” he said.

He said the combination of outdated ideologies, poor policies, cadre deployment, and corruption is destroying the country.

“You have weak economic growth, institutions are being destroyed, and South Africa is de-industrialising,” Roodt said.

“South Africans are getting poorer, and children are dying of hunger. Unemployment levels are through the roof, and there are horrible levels of crime.”

He argued that these bad things are because of the ANC. “If we don’t get rid of the ANC, we are not going to fix the country,” Roodt said.

The ANC moved away from good economic principles

Roodt said that under Presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, the ANC moved away from outdated ideologies and followed better economic principles.

They followed free market and capitalist principles and even privatised some companies. In response, the economy started to show strong growth.

However, over the last 15 years, the ANC has moved back to destructive communist policies, which are anti-business, said the economist.

The result was that economic growth disappeared, unemployment increased, and people became poorer.

As such, Roodt believes that the current ANC is now driven by ideology, cadre deployment, and corruption, and the situation is getting worse.

“There is no way we can fix this country with the ANC still in power. The only way we can fix the country is to get rid of the ANC,” Roodt said.

He argued that most people understand this and are starting to vote against the ANC, which was evident in the last election, with 60% of the country voting for other parties.

“They realise we have a destructive force in government that is causing harm. What the ANC does is not fit for a modern economy,” he said.

Roodt said that although it will take time, he believes that South Africa will fix its problems as they are political instead of economic.