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The Democratic Alliance today presented a comparative analysis of South Africa's performance in nine key international indices, over a period of up to five years.

Purpose of analysis

This document serves as an update to the study released by the Democratic Alliance (DA) in 2009, which assessed South Africa's performance in a range of international comparative studies and local surveys, in order to contrast it with the view presented by the ruling party and evaluate the accuracy of the picture presented to us. A copy of the document can be downloaded here.

The analysis presented by the DA was conducted over the last three months using the latest figures available at the time for each of these studies or surveys. The following indicators have been included in the document:

• Human Development Index
• The Economic Freedom of the World Index
• Global Competitiveness Index
• Global Peace Index
• Transparency International Corruption Barometer
• Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) / Education Ranking by Country

In addition, given the recent focus on the state of media freedom in South Africa, figures from surveys relevant to this topic have been incorporated. These surveys are Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index and the Freedom House Freedom of the Press Index.

Newsweek's The World's Best Countries study, which ranks the world's nations according to education, health, quality of life, economic dynamism and political environment, has also been included to incorporate an additional international perspective into our analysis.

The ANC government's attitude towards South Africa's international performance

The ruling ANC has become characterized by its hostility towards openness and transparency. This extends from the current attempts to clamp down on media freedom, to the government's reluctance to release detailed statistics about key aspects of the country's performance. These are the hallmarks of a government in denial, whose policy failures have in many cases served to hamper development and whose fear of the truth threatens to prevent it from formulating effective solutions.

The ANC government's disdain for external appraisals of the country's progress was heightened under former President Thabo Mbeki. As a result, the national administration shunned the findings of international surveys and chose instead to produce its own assessments, for example, the Ten Year Review of the Presidency, which was more spin than statistics.

However, the ANC government has failed to produce the assessments that really matter, such as regular, comprehensive statistical information about key aspects of South Africa's development, for example, changes in levels of poverty. In fact, the government has, as yet, failed to reach consensus on an official measure of poverty. How does the ANC administration plan to effectively combat poverty, identified as one of its top priorities, if it is unable to measure the scale of the problem?

Key findings

The serious shortage of national data on critical aspects of the country's development, such as poverty, has placed even greater importance on the information generated by international bodies in this regard. While it may be possible for the ANC government to challenge the findings of one or two international surveys, it cannot contest the results of every indicator.

And the results of these external assessments are telling.

Key findings concerning South Africa's development include:

• The Human Development Index (HDI), where South Africa slipped down three places from the rank it had stagnated at for two years
• The Global Competitiveness Index, which ranked South Africa as number one according to the regulation of securities exchanges but 137 out of 139 countries for the quality of its science and maths education
• The Freedom House Freedom of the Press Index, where South Africa's rating has decreased from "Free" to "Partly Free"- it is noteworthy that this does not take into account the recent threats to press freedom posed by the Protection of Information Bill, which was tabled after this survey was released

The results of the indicators assessed by the DA build a picture of a country with considerable potential that has made notable strides in areas such as financial market performance, but which continues to fail to provide the most basic services to its people and promote and protect basic freedoms. The quality of education and health care under the ANC government is ranked as some of the worst in the world.

This points to a massive policy failing by the ruling party.

Instead of using this data constructively to reassess its priorities and transform its ability to deliver, the ANC has chosen denial. The DA seeks to highlight the extent of the ANC's denialism by contrasting South Africa's performance in a range of international comparative studies with the picture presented by the ruling party.

The Presidency, whose core responsibility is the implementation and achievement of the government's strategic agenda, should be leading the charge in seeking a more detailed understanding of our nation's problems and ensuring the development of effective solutions. However, President Jacob Zuma's political position, compromised by tripartite alliance factionalism and the complex web of conflicting promises he made to win power, and his determination to continue to pursue damaging policies such as cadre deployment, has undermined South Africa's ability to develop to its full potential.

The ANC government's continued denial of its policy failures in key areas such as health, education and combating corruption is undermining both South Africa's development and its citizens' chance of a better life.

The purpose of this analysis is not to dwell on problems, but to emphasize that they cannot be resolved without first being understood. As a party concerned with solutions, the DA seeks to use international assessments to better understand the problems our country faces and map a successful way forward.