As the South African political and economic landscape becomes increasingly bizarre, planning your future in South Africa is proving to be a real juggling act.

Our directionless leadership is flying blind and this impacts on every sphere of our lives. A perfect example of just how blind they are flying is a report on dailymaverick.co.za that according to the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE), government has no common and coherent view in the National Development Plan (NDP), the economic development department’s New Growth Path (NGP), and the trade and industry department’s industrial policy action plan (IPAP).

"The economy is in trouble and South Africa needs certainty. It’s time to make the tough choices and stick to them,” Executive Director, Ann Bernstein said in a statement. She said the three documents offered “very different ideas about where the jobs will come from”.

If the government and Nr 1 doesn't know which way they're headed (except hoping to retain the majority vote by likening the Tripartite Alliance with the Biblical holy trinity), it becomes very difficult for the citizenry to figure out the way forward. Flying blind indeed.

Then we have the new EFFies asking for our vote in the upcoming election. Their leader, Julius Malema, recently confused North Korea with South Korea when he started singing the latter's praises in an attempt to explain the EFFies' economic strategy (hoping, he claimed, this would win him the white vote). Now, striving to be the best and actually being the best are two completely different things. The South Korean government is driving innovation and development, but reflecting on some of the state tenders where Malema had the perfect opportunity to showcase his talent for innovation and development, all we see are badly built roads and a gaping hole where there should have been a bridge. What do we read from the EFFies' economic policy? Kyk noord en voeter voort...

And then just last week the DA left their supporters stunned and wondering if their normally 'holier than thou' party has a split personality.

The oft incredulous question was, "Surely they know what they're doing?" The subtext being, "Please God, someone in this country has to know what they are doing!"

This feeling of incredulity follows the DA's support of the Employment Equity Amendment Bill (hoping to win the black vote) and an unexpected stance on BEE. DA supporters have always believed that their party of choice stands for a society free of racial bias and that they can rely on the DA to fight for the person with the skills to do the job. I mean, that is how Zille justified her all male cabinet in 2009!

Apparently the best (available) men for the jobs were (available) men...

And then we have the Agang leader, Dr Mamphela Ramphele saying that BEE has been a dismal failure and that it should be abandoned (hoping for white and black votes?)

If this is all too much to cope with, just listen to the recently vindicated Mosioua Lekota on the reasons for the historic divisions within his party: "I did not see BEE and affirmative action as solutions to black poverty, I said we needed to find other ways to uplift and develop our people." And Cope is exactly what he expects the electorate to do.

Here are two black opposition party leaders opposed to BEE, but the party always labelled as a 'white party' votes for BEE. More curious it can hardly get - lets hope there is method in their madness, or else the opposition vote may just be Dead Against the DA.

I leave you with an excerpt from Lewis Carroll's classic Alice in Wonderland:

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
 "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
 "I don't much care where..." said Alice.
 "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
 "...so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.
 "Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

 The moral of the story: If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.

BY ILSE SCHOONRAAD, GEORGE HERALD EDITOR

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