Where there is a crisis, there is a massive opportunity.
Your leadership and bravery of action against the Covid19 is exemplary and commendable. The aftermath of your decision will be painful as jobs will be lost and incomes shall be slashed and families will suffer. All this suffering is necessary medicine. However, there is an opportunity in this crisis.
For decades, China dominated the manufacturing and export of goods worldwide. South Africa suffered as our manufacturing capability was hollowed out. We lost production capabilities in textiles, engineering, and technology. Our agricultural capability was decimated to near negligible. South Africa became a net importer of goods and a primary exporter of jobs and money. Our unemployment soared, year after year. My President, we can turn the tide.
Covid19 has exposed our soft underbelly and gifted us with a grand opportunity to rethink our economy. This unfortunate Virus could be the push we need to kick us in the right direction. A direction where we start planting our own coffee, we start sewing our own underwear and we start manufacturing our own computers. We have the ingredients to do all these things. We have cheap labor, the land, and technology. What we lacked was political foresight, which I believe, we now have. Covid19 could be the equalizer that finally brings back balance to our trade.
Make no mistake, China will increase its game. Post Covid19, China’s exports will skyrocket and its growth will be bigger than before. The battered world will be hungry for its exports. South Africa will be trapped in that vortex and our line of the unemployed will easily breach 50%. For decades to come, we will battle to go back to where we were in 2004. Unless we smell the coffee unless we dare to imagine and act on that imagination. We can break away from the past and build a new and better economy.
Therefore, while we battle this virus, let us think and plan more of the future. Dwelling only in the now will be national suicide. Counting infections is easy and addictive, recovery is tough. Covid19 must not blindsight us. Let us have the vision to see the aftermath of the storm. Let us use Covid19 as a reset button. Recharge, energize and strategize. Thereafter aggressively implement a grand strategy to build a new and better economy. Plant coffee and build industries. Covid19 is the push we were waiting for, as for the direction of that push that is your choice, Sir.
Your avid follower, Djo BaNkuna
