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The Critical Dozen - The Dozen Things President Zuma Must Do

There are a dozen critical things that President Zuma must personally attend to during the remaining four years of his presidency to ensure a legacy of admiration and respect.

The country is sliding into a muddle of belligerent activism that must be quelled otherwise we will soon see public protests becoming waves of violent revolt, flames and ruin. The youth especially, is under threat of being usurped by revolutionaries and opportunists. The twelve actions must be undertaken promptly and coherently to produce and broadcast the positive resonance that will galvanize and save the nation from ruin. The actions will stop the slide into misery and will build a legacy of safety, unity, enterprise and prosperity for which the president will be remembered.

The actions are:

1.       Publicly demand zero tolerance for poor public service delivery. Demanding and measuring performance excellence on a task and project basis, will change behaviour and citizens will soon experience the positive effects of efficiency and effectiveness.

2.        Appoint senior executives in the public service on the basis of proficiency and proven excellence. Ensure that the qualifications of all public officials are valid and that promotions are based on sterling accomplishments.

3.       Ban public demonstrations in public roads, barricading of roads and burning of tyres and buildings. Create a public service delivery grievance resolution procedure involving the media, which results in immediate investigations and corrections.

4.       Compensate and reward teachers for tuition excellence and youth development. Institute a process that ensures our school education system and teacher compensation structure is on par with the best in the world.

5.       Make high school education free. Reduce the high school drop-out rate and youth substance abuse by increasing funding to public schools to cover school fees, cost of uniforms and sport, nourishment and transport.

6.       Implement a strategy to make our soccer internationally competitive and popular. Make soccer the first choice official school sport and establish at least one soccer academy for talented players in every town with a sizable young people population.

7.       Launch a patriotism building drive and secure a national patriotic bond between all black, coloured and white South Africans. Put in place an Apartheid forgiveness and reconciliation process that unifies all races in shared patriotism.

8.       Reward small enterprise owners for successful employment, on-job training and retention of young people. Reduce the funding for employee training going to state education and training agencies and channel the funds to entrepreneurs on the basis of fixed employment and job-creation performance history and value-added on-job training.

9.       Put the police force through social virtues and moral values training. Ensure that every police officer undergoes training in the root causes of crime and violence and the effects of substance abuse, crime, violence, virtues and values on human behaviour.

10.   Turn prisons for non-lifers into craft training centres. Establish a craft training centre in every prison and train those prisoners who are incarcerated for more than one year, but less than five years, in a craft and set of skills that will ensure employability on release.

11.   Prohibit the building of shacks and un-serviced settlements for the poor and authorise regional municipal councils to build decent housing and infrastructure on suitable vacant ground owned by the state.

12.   Shield and protect the President against political and media attacks that harm his reputation and dignity and give rise to citizen shame, hopelessness and interracial ill-will in communities. Find a way to get rid of the ills and wrongs of the past and a way to engage and build the future with confidence.

The mental, emotional and spiritual influence in our society of doing and succeeding with the above critical dozen will generate the hope, enthusiasm and resolve that is needed to turn South Africa into a winning nation within four years. The President’s tolerant nature and charismatic style of leadership will ensure that he will succeed with the above and all South Africans will benefit.

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