Measuring the success of development

Prospects of an equal society post-apartheid society.

At the fall of Apartheid and the rise of Democracy, hope was overflowing with regards to the prospects of employment, development, an nd justice. This is the time when we all thought that all previous imbalances would be reconciled and justice would prevail.

The fall of apart was morally correct and 100% ethical. Looking specifically at the policies that were put in place in order to achieve the goals. Policies such as the RDP Reconstruction and Development  Programme sought out to “to bring social transformation to South Africa” this was intended to touch on most if not all the social ills of the past and shift the South Africa majority a gear up.  Although the blueprint was done in consideration with other factors that could fuel up the process and those that might hamper the process little was paid to the issue population growth. The population growth becomes a relevant factor as many scholars argue that there’s a cycle that exists along poverty lines.

 Now my Question is, how does this very cycle threatens the prospect of us achieving the social transformation that we seek to achieve? Because if there’s a cycle that exists for poverty then the poverty short-term goals that we aim to achieve will be carried through to the other generations. The degree of naive beliefs is also a factor because even when we seek to develop the poor and try to shorten the gap between the Haves and Have not, it all sounds practical but in the real sense is that they have are not stagnant therefore development also takes place in their part of the court. There is statement does not suggest that developmental projects are futile exercises but that when looking at development we should not look at it as a way of breaching gaps but away of improving the conditions of living and this would differ in the degrees of the status quo of who is being developed.

The comparative approach, therefore, limits us to judging success with the status of the haves at that moment.  Now in terms of measuring success this will always seem as if they have not’s are still far behind the developmental line because development does not only occur where it’s needed but it also occurs in the part of the developer, its more or less parallel but another thing that you might notice is that at times it happens at an accelerated speed in the developed corner.

Let me use a scenario of a small town in South Africa where a businessman (T-boss) has a shop and two cars the shop is located in an area where the locals are poor. And in the other corner, we have T-man someone who is a local and is a customer at the store of the businessman. Now the local community receives help from the government with the rollout of 500 “affordable” RDP houses this lift the standards of living for T-man and he, therefore, decides that I am going to buy a double bed since am staying in a proper house. Now because Tman has moved a notch and can now concentrate on other things than building a house for his family. He then buys the double-bed from Boss's store after saving for a long. 

My point in that scenario is that because Tman’s living conditions have been uplifted so is T-boss and in some cases, you will find that T-boss’s business will be receiving other orders from other locals, this making his business boom. And he may also think of investing the profits to get more money. Now what happened on the left also happened on the and thus Tman will never be at the same level as T-boss.  Unless Tman wins the lotto and his doesn’t get confused with the money and think it will never end or Tboss is a Malema case.

We should never measure success by looking at other but by the standards, not everything in life is a race that we must run because there’s a victory to be won for the first three competitors. Sometimes we need to run against time (standards). Your success cannot be measured by someone else’s or you will never set a record.

Therefore the aim should always be to improve the living conditions of ordinary(all) South African we can never have a state where pap and meat are what everyone eats, some will always be far ahead.