South Africa is in the throes of an unprecedented, multifaceted socio-economic crisis requiring substantive, impactful policy interventions. Yet, having attended the governing African National Congress’s recent five-yearly national policy conference, which was supposed to show how the party intends to steer the country forward, I wonder if it actually appreciates the enormity of the problems facing the nation.
A phrase from Italian philosopher and poet Alighieri Dante’s 1320 poem Divine Comedy comes to mind:
