Build One SA: The grey-haired gatekeepers of politics have had their chance, and they blew it

Too many times in history, societies and their leaders have fallen into the trap of believing that they have a choice between staying the course and course correction. The conservative approach is usually underlined by thinking that if one improved efficiency and installed better navigators, staying on the same path forward is the most sensible choice.

At different stages in history, whether one considers Emmanuel Macron, Elon Musk, the more youthful version of Bill Gates or Barack Obama, it has been fresher eyes and youthful exuberance that bravely trumpeted a vision for course correction.

The cynics in society stood on the sidelines professing doom while these change agents took civilisations forward or averted their demise. Young people have proven time and again that when it comes to seismic shifts, they feel them long before the older generation. Most importantly, once they see these seismic shifts on the horizon, they are not scared of decisive action.

So it is that a young man from Dobsonville, Soweto, expressed on Heritage Day the audacious call for a change in South Africa’s trajectory. In founding Build One South Africa (Bosa), Mmusi Maimane’s model for change is made public for all to see. Maimane’s belief is that entrenched political interests are no longer able to find the common ground required to take the decisive political steps that will bring about much-needed change.

This deficit of courage, ideas and resilience has brought our economy to its knees, has caused our turbines to cease firing and our young people to suffer the indignity of mass unemployment. Yet still the naysayers advocate for sticking to our current options – tinkering here and fiddling there – along the pothole-filled road to demise.

Young people all over the country are revolting against this status quo. They know what they want to see. Build One South Africa hears their voices, their concerns and their cries. To construct the South Africa they all seek to grow old in, we believe this country needs four key building materials.

Raising the floor by ensuring that our social security net is in tune with South Africa’s rising living standards is mission critical. Two, we need walls to ensure that our national borders are secure, our police force is reignited around the task of safety and security and our intelligence agencies tackle organised crime. Then, a ceiling governing how much of the future we sacrifice to pay the debt taken on by some of our corrupt government officials. Lastly, we need a trampoline in the form of a drastic reinvigoration of township and peri-urban areas and the economies within.

At face value these areas seem relatively easy to focus on. But closer inspection reveals the inertia paralysing South African stakeholders. Let’s start with the issue of social security. Research shows that instituting a basic income grant can raise our GDP by up to 3%. This single action can create the additional spending power to enable people to satisfy their latent hunger for basic goods and services. And it begins to restore dignity.

If this action were combined with the stimulation of township economies, South Africa would be able to begin to circulate rands in the hands of small and medium enterprises. SMEs in townships rarely receive the expansion capital required for them to become scalable employers. The average township resident spends 35% of their salary on transport. Being employed closer to home creates positive spin-off cycles. It allows citizens to be more present in their family life and have more leisure time – both of which are proven to result in a more engaged, productive employee.