Merit is our only antidote
Offers South Africans the only way out of spiral into decline, greater poverty and violence
MOST African countries, since independence from colonialism, have failed to achieve high growth levels, industrialise to developed country levels and achieve peace because they did not make merit the guiding principle for society.
African countries, since the end of colonialism, have mostly been patronage-based, where patronage within political parties, government and civil society is bestowed not upon merit, but on ethnic, factional and family closeness.
Society based on patronage has left a legacy of continued poverty, inequality and unemployment, and endemic corruption, forced migration and civil wars.
In more merit-based country cultures everyone has an equal chance to advance and obtain rewards based on their individual merits and efforts, regardless of their gender, race, class, or other non-merit factors.
Because of the lack of merit, opportunism became the guiding principle for political party and government appointments, securing government contracts and development projects.
Opportunistic societies are not based on fairness. Hard work is not rewarded. Equal opportunities to advance in society are limited. People do not reach their full potential. Widespread social mobility is difficult. It disincentivises people to give their best. It results in incompetence becoming the societal norm.
In these African societies one advanced overwhelmingly through who you know, who you are related to and who you are buttering up to. Similarly, an entrepreneur who is not connected will find it hard to secure state funding, contracts or licences.
Opportunists advance through praise-singing leaders, pushing down talented rivals or stealing their ideas, and use their connections to leaders to serve as middlemen and women to secure government contracts.
Opportunists do not add value; they are value destroyers. They rarely come up with innovative ideas; they stamp out innovative ideas.
Leaders, governing parties and governments in opportunistic societies would rarely invest in quality education – because a better educated society reduces opportunism.
Traditional, political and social patriarchy encourages opportunistic, patronage and clientalistic-orientated societies, as they make individual advancement dependent on the favour of the traditional king, leader and ethnic origin or “higher” status.
In opportunistic African societies’ development funds, policies and projects will be captured by the well connected – never to achieve their intended development objectives.
Within organisational settings, opportunists can suck the oxygen out of organisations when they steal the ideas of others, suppress career prospects of talented and hard-working staff, and surround themselves with yes-men and women incompetents.
Almost all the great economic transformations – where developing countries had jumped from chronic poverty, underdevelopment and disease to prosperous industrial country status – have been based on their introducing meritocracy in public service, business and civil society.
The difference between African developing countries, which have failed, and the developing countries, which have successfully industrialised, lies to a large extent on whether countries have introduced merit into their public cultures or allowed opportunism to be the dominant creed.
A 2015 UN Report argues that “meritocracy reinforces the notion of equality and competence as it rejects patronage, nepotism, corruption and incompetence”.
Opportunistic societies, unless transformed into merit-based ones, will spiral towards de-industrialisation, more poverty and, eventually, violence. No amount of new policies, new funding or new infrastructure projects will ever be successfully implemented because incompetent opportunists will always take over and money will be siphoned off.
South Africa is in danger of becoming a society where being connected has become the guiding principle for advancement.
Many policies, including BEE, affirmative action and preferential procurement, have in many cases been captured by opportunists, meaning that only a select few benefit while the vast majority of genuine would-be beneficiaries are left out. The only antidote to the slide to an opportunistic society is inclusive, honest and merit-based governance.
Meritocracy reinforces the notion of equality and competence as it rejects patronage, nepotism, corruption and incompetence
William Gumede is chairman of the Democracy Works Foundation (www. democracyworks.org.za) and author of South Africa in BRICS (Tafelberg)