End of the line for ANC economics

THE FLAMES of burning warehouses, shops and factories have at last been doused. In front of shattered malls, local residents wearing luminous yellow or orange vests stand watch like an army of school-crossing wardens. Crowds of volunteers—white and black, young and old, sometimes singing together—sweep up the broken glass and ashes after the week of riots instigated by allies of the tainted former president, Jacob Zuma, in a vain effort to reverse his recent jailing for defying the Constitutional Court. In the clean-up, the optimism and generosity of spirit of the rainbow nation re-emerged, a reminder of the miracle that enabled a liberal democracy to be born, against the odds, 27 years ago, after the brutality of apartheid.

Make no mistake, though. The riots were nothing less than a violent attempt by a pro-corruption faction within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to overthrow the democratic order. And the fires sparked by Mr Zuma’s allies took flame so fiercely because of the anger generated by more than two decades of misgovernment and graft. This has been largely to blame for one of the world’s highest unemployment rates, which stems from a growth-sapping mix of crony capitalism, fossilised state-owned industries and laws that discourage businesses from hiring new workers.

Start with crony capitalism,...