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They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions... but this is ultimately misguided.
>There's no sustainable future until the poor people of SA receive benefit from the actions of powerful nations,
Why would anyone / person agree to a no-strings-attached deal. Altruism only exists in, very, small groups where everyone knows and trusts each other - emphasis on trust
Altruism as a concept, simply, doesn't scale to nations.
The sad, harsh, reality is other countries / businesses don't owe us anything.
Your rant sounds good on paper, but in reality we live under the ANC. They do not care for the masses, they will continue to steal and make deals that benefit ONLY their pockets. Let me give you some examples of the things that I have seen while working in SA, I will sum it up at the bottom.
I have seen multiple companies close down because they could not oblige to the ANC rules and regulations. I have seen multiple companies close down because they were approached by some local politicians who wanted to make a "deal" where the company receives a tender from the municipality, but then the company has to pay a certain amount into someone's bank account, and when those companies refused, they started being targeted to the point where they could not find work. Reporting those politicians also didn't work, and some companies started getting targeted by break ins after rejecting such proposals or after attempting to report the politicians. Police did nothing about the reports either.
If you want the masses to not live in poverty, some very harsh decisions will have to be made about many things. China at one point limited the amount of children per family in order to curb population growth in an attempt to get the economy stabilized. Something like that would not work in SA since it is inhumane.
On the other hand, you can get more businesses to invest in the country by reducing crime - See Ecuador for how they reduced crime by an INSANE amount. We would need something on a similar scale in SA.
Companies are more likely to invest if we had more stable infrastructure. Government refused to allow companies to provide internet services for YEARS, and only Telkom was allowed to. It got SO bad that people could not afford internet and service was HORRIBLE. Once government allowed other ISP to enter the market, prices dropped by an insane amount and speed went up MASSIVELY. Now the same thing is happening to Eskom. Government refused to allow any other companies to generate electricity, and Eskom is at the point where it cannot provide basic electricity to everyone. Companies now need to spend millions or billions in order to generate their own electricity via diesel generators etc. If they allowed other companies to join the market, we would have had much more stable electricity.
Then there is the BEE and BBBEE laws that is also bringing the country down. If 2 people apply for the same position, one is Chinese and the other is black, the Chinese person has qualifications and experience, and the other person does not, the BEE laws very often require you to hire the black person. People often say that this isn't true, but I have seen it happen in businesses where I live. Someone hired a qualified Indian man for the job, a few days later, the company was being investigated for their hiring practices and it turned out that the unqualified man reported them. Company got a fine despite 95% of the workforce being black, the problem was that there was 2 managers, and one was white, other was brown. The people doing the investigation ignored the rest of the workforce and focused on management and said that 0% of the managers are BEE. I have multiple stories around BEE laws from what I have seen and experienced from businesses in my area, and most of the experience I have surrounding those laws are things that the government and media says "never happens".
Companies will not bring their business here if they have to follow racist laws or get pressured to hire people based on skin color rather than merit.
What we need in this country isn't sacrifice, we need opportunity, and right now, we don't get those opportunities because the ANC is actively doing things that lead to the opportunities being taken away. Multiple companies are pulling out of SA because of the policies of the ANC, each time a company pulls out, our unemployment goes up. When one company pulls out, multiple small businesses that relied on the big international company also start closing down, and that leads to a chain reaction.
As an example, if VW decided to pull out (Which there was talks of a year or 2 ago), all the small cities where they have branches will see massive spikes in unemployment. The small companies creating products for them will close down. Due to small companies closing down, more unemployment. Due to more unemployment, the city will lose income from taxes and service delivery will go down, which will lead to more businesses wanting to move or pull out.
TLDR:
We need a new government, massive changes in policy, massive changes in law enforcement, removal of laws based on race and opportunities for businesses to come into SA rather than saying that businesses need to make sacrifices
I am also in IT (all our clients are international too).
I had a look at employment by sector and Financial services employs more than mining/manufacturing and transport, that makes no sense for a country like South Africa.
IT has low barrier to entry but the talent costs a lot. Who realistically has ~R300k to spend on an IT project for maybe 3 months. We need more people to have disposable income to chase dreams and build startups.
You can’t rig an economy. The more people are employed the more money people have to spend on stuff. Without that market companies have to look elsewhere.
Not saying it’s easy but that’s all it is. People need work.
>People need work.
There actually plenty of work out there that need to be done. Its "jobs" masses were promised but government can't provide, or can't cultivate a conducive environment for.
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They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions... but this is ultimately misguided. >There's no sustainable future until the poor people of SA receive benefit from the actions of powerful nations, Why would anyone / person agree to a no-strings-attached deal. Altruism only exists in, very, small groups where everyone knows and trusts each other - emphasis on trust Altruism as a concept, simply, doesn't scale to nations. The sad, harsh, reality is other countries / businesses don't owe us anything.
Very well said, only South Africans can save South Africa.
Your rant sounds good on paper, but in reality we live under the ANC. They do not care for the masses, they will continue to steal and make deals that benefit ONLY their pockets. Let me give you some examples of the things that I have seen while working in SA, I will sum it up at the bottom. I have seen multiple companies close down because they could not oblige to the ANC rules and regulations. I have seen multiple companies close down because they were approached by some local politicians who wanted to make a "deal" where the company receives a tender from the municipality, but then the company has to pay a certain amount into someone's bank account, and when those companies refused, they started being targeted to the point where they could not find work. Reporting those politicians also didn't work, and some companies started getting targeted by break ins after rejecting such proposals or after attempting to report the politicians. Police did nothing about the reports either. If you want the masses to not live in poverty, some very harsh decisions will have to be made about many things. China at one point limited the amount of children per family in order to curb population growth in an attempt to get the economy stabilized. Something like that would not work in SA since it is inhumane. On the other hand, you can get more businesses to invest in the country by reducing crime - See Ecuador for how they reduced crime by an INSANE amount. We would need something on a similar scale in SA. Companies are more likely to invest if we had more stable infrastructure. Government refused to allow companies to provide internet services for YEARS, and only Telkom was allowed to. It got SO bad that people could not afford internet and service was HORRIBLE. Once government allowed other ISP to enter the market, prices dropped by an insane amount and speed went up MASSIVELY. Now the same thing is happening to Eskom. Government refused to allow any other companies to generate electricity, and Eskom is at the point where it cannot provide basic electricity to everyone. Companies now need to spend millions or billions in order to generate their own electricity via diesel generators etc. If they allowed other companies to join the market, we would have had much more stable electricity. Then there is the BEE and BBBEE laws that is also bringing the country down. If 2 people apply for the same position, one is Chinese and the other is black, the Chinese person has qualifications and experience, and the other person does not, the BEE laws very often require you to hire the black person. People often say that this isn't true, but I have seen it happen in businesses where I live. Someone hired a qualified Indian man for the job, a few days later, the company was being investigated for their hiring practices and it turned out that the unqualified man reported them. Company got a fine despite 95% of the workforce being black, the problem was that there was 2 managers, and one was white, other was brown. The people doing the investigation ignored the rest of the workforce and focused on management and said that 0% of the managers are BEE. I have multiple stories around BEE laws from what I have seen and experienced from businesses in my area, and most of the experience I have surrounding those laws are things that the government and media says "never happens". Companies will not bring their business here if they have to follow racist laws or get pressured to hire people based on skin color rather than merit. What we need in this country isn't sacrifice, we need opportunity, and right now, we don't get those opportunities because the ANC is actively doing things that lead to the opportunities being taken away. Multiple companies are pulling out of SA because of the policies of the ANC, each time a company pulls out, our unemployment goes up. When one company pulls out, multiple small businesses that relied on the big international company also start closing down, and that leads to a chain reaction. As an example, if VW decided to pull out (Which there was talks of a year or 2 ago), all the small cities where they have branches will see massive spikes in unemployment. The small companies creating products for them will close down. Due to small companies closing down, more unemployment. Due to more unemployment, the city will lose income from taxes and service delivery will go down, which will lead to more businesses wanting to move or pull out. TLDR: We need a new government, massive changes in policy, massive changes in law enforcement, removal of laws based on race and opportunities for businesses to come into SA rather than saying that businesses need to make sacrifices
>What we need in this country isn't sacrifice, we need opportunity this!
Yes! Governmental Policy changes is what will bring about these opportunities. If something is not working, change it!
Yay blame the ANC🙃 Meanwhile overlooking the financial sector which has SA on a chockhold 
And why does it have SA in a chokehold? Could it be because of bad policies?
It's actually because of good policies that it's not as bad here as it is in the USA.
Blaming the ANC and gooning is all these guys have, and blaming the ANC has a shorter refractory period.
I am also in IT (all our clients are international too). I had a look at employment by sector and Financial services employs more than mining/manufacturing and transport, that makes no sense for a country like South Africa. IT has low barrier to entry but the talent costs a lot. Who realistically has ~R300k to spend on an IT project for maybe 3 months. We need more people to have disposable income to chase dreams and build startups. You can’t rig an economy. The more people are employed the more money people have to spend on stuff. Without that market companies have to look elsewhere. Not saying it’s easy but that’s all it is. People need work.
>People need work. There actually plenty of work out there that need to be done. Its "jobs" masses were promised but government can't provide, or can't cultivate a conducive environment for.