76. The Freedom To Correct Errors

A Promising Day For South Africa

The South African general elections took place on 29 May 2024. The African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party since 1994, lost the parliamentary majority. Today they formed a coalition government with the Democratic Alliance (DA), the runner-up party and primary opposition of the ANC since Apartheid, and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which came in 5th place.

This gives me so much hope for my home country! The country had major problems and was declining into what felt like an unrecoverable position. Known for its corruption, high unemployment rate, and energy crisis South Africa seemed doomed. The cost of living has surged while the corrupt are richer than ever, but today might be the day it all changes. What enabled this change to take place?

Error Correction Mechanisms

Let's explore this more broadly from a system perspective. There are causes and effects. Inputs processed under specific conditions or rules result in outputs. If we care about the outcome naturally we will care about what causes it: the inputs and the conditions/rules. We care about the relationships between the causal factors and the output, and our control and influence over them.

Let's say you want to throw a ball at a target. In your first attempt, you miss the target so you adjust how you throw the ball. You miss again but this time you are closer. This is progress. You changed something that helped decrease the error of where the ball ended. Imagine if you tried to do this with your eyes closed. It would be much harder. Now, you changed your throwing technique again but this time you are further away from the target than when you started. You continue guessing and checking whether you are making progress. You have an error detection mechanism but how can you reliably make progress? You need an error correction mechanism. You need a way to connect how you throw the ball to where it ends up. If the ball went above the target you think that was too much throwing force. If it was to the left you try to aim more right.

Systems that employ error correction mechanisms find ways to progress. Democracy is such a system. Through the election process, people can correct the power allocation. No one knows which political party's ideas are best or who would be the best leader, but what is clear is whether the majority is happy with the outcomes of the current power allocation. If they aren't satisfied they change things up like what happened in South Africa. Each political party fights for popularity, but this time we may see political ideas compete in real-time. Due to the division of senior cabinet positions, a minimum of 5 out of 15 for the DA, how they manage these areas will demonstrate their leadership compared to the ANC. The ANC is under enormous pressure to prove itself in the remaining areas so they do not lose further support. Such exciting times! The emergence of this competition during the same election cycle creates a marvelous dynamic. Neither the ANC nor the DA can hide behind excuses anymore. They will either show themselves effect or not. May the best ideas win.

The Lesson For Us

What can we learn from the South African 2024 elections? The default condition of every system is that we can only be certain of one thing: that mistakes exist. We don't know what those errors are. We don't know how to correct them but we can learn. Creating avenues for error correction and hence learning is the key to all progress. As we govern ourselves and are stakeholders in other systems we must encourage this in every way we can.

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
- Nelson Mandela