Besides the series of embarrassing corruption/bribery charges over the last 15 years which have been levelled at the current and ex-president as well as their cabinets with no one being held accountable, the manufacturing industries have shrunk (and this is before the 2007/2008 economic meltdown) with the country going into bed with China in a big way - for little or no gain being realised for its needy people.
The above has helped weaken the currency - when the country became fully democratic in 1994 it was sitting at R3.60 to the 1$, 20 years on it is now R13 = R1.
They have people in the highest positions of power, who control the lives of the people they 'serve', who have neither been educated, nor do they have the experience. The current president has not even finished school. At what do we say, "Yup, we need one of the least educated to run a country."
Schooling has been dumbed down and instead of attempting to follow the education of the better countries, instead the country is adopting policies and curriculums of failed and poorly thought out systems. Recently they had university students throwing their excrement at old statues - and these students were acquitted of wrong doing. These are the bright minds we have to look forward to.
And don't take my word for it about the education, take a South African black person's perspective. There are hundreds of articles such as these reflecting how badly the country is being run.
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/gover...barians-who-are-racist-and-sexist-jansen.html
The BBBEE policies refer only to black persons without differentiating if these blacks need to be South African or from any other African country. This is a huge problem, because you find that the companies will hire black people, to fill their BBBEE quota, from other African countries which are better educated/ with more experience than the natives, leaving the South African blacks in no better position than they were before. And the country is filled with African immigrants.
Then you have native Africans on non-native African clashes - were locals become jealous of the non-natives' success or ingenuity and either threaten/harm/kill the immigrants and/or destroy their properties.
A large percentage of the municipalities under the ANC do not receive clean audits.
Monies are being spend needlessly in name-changing programmes 20 years on.
Furthermore in 1994 the country was generating more energy output for electricity than it is today. Why would that be, given that they wanted to put more people on the power grid? Its inefficient management and vision - which has led to 'load shedding'. For the last 5+ years the country as experienced planned electricity cuts (which never occurred before), which leads to a decrease in the countries output, decrease in foreign investments, lower GDP..etc
And there is a prediction that water shortages will be on their way. This is how it started in Zimbabwe.
So the ANC inherited a working infrastructure only to start dismantling it 20 years on...
I'm not saying good has not occurred with the fall of Apartheid, but certainly not nearly enough - and given the current 'fat cat' leaders of the ruling political party and their antics it is not looking promising for a country which is rather rich (gold, platinum, iron, copper, coal, diamonds, timber, agriculture, access to the ocean).
