President Ramaphosa's first100 Days in office: South Africa's new dawn, Zuma legacy and the forceful gravity of historic challenges

SOUTH AFRICA - In Brief 09 May 2018 by Iraj Abedian

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President Ramaphosa's first 100 days in office are drawing to an end. He has promised a new dawn for the country's democracy, an ethical revival for the ANC, and a restart for the sluggish economy. On all these fronts, he is bogged down by some or other legacy challenges. The country's democratic project is work in progress, its diverse social construct understands democracy differently, and expects a very different outcomes from it. Most importantly, the disadvantaged majority is growing increasingly impatient with the lack of progress in key areas of socio-economic upliftment. A large segment of the disgruntled population is young, restless and facing hopelessness. Nearly 25 years of democracy has not necessarily improved the expected life opportunities for the young, thanks mostly to a sub-standard and ineffective public education and trainsing system. The onrush of the 4th industrial revolution, the growing pace of digitalisation, and the rapid spread of skills mismatch have further contributed to this evident rise of youth unemployability phenomenon in the country. Nowadays, there are an estimated two million graduates without full time employment and in search of jobs. The outcome is a bubbling frustration within the society.The older population in the meantime is suffering from the inefficiencies of the public sector in areas of housing, health, policing and general municipal services. The citizenry's expectations are out of sync with the capacity and the mindset of those in charge of public service delivery. The spread of an extractive mindset, or the rise of a pradatory technocratic class within the public sector, has not helped the situation either. This was ...