Good progress is being made on two of the 10. Neotel is in the process of launching. This is driving down the price of Internet access. And hopefully telephony costs will follow.
And the shortage of power stations, dams, roads and grocery factories has been acknowledged. Both the private and public sectors are investing aggressively to alleviate the bottlenecks that have developed due to the healthy growth of recent years.
There has been some advancement on a further three. Municipalities have recognised the need to develop functional public transport systems. And part of the spending on the Fifa World Cup will help in this area. But more needs to be done so that poor people can easily get to where the work is.
Despite this year's strikes, from a regulatory perspective, the labour market is showing signs of functioning better. The major blockage in the past - the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration - is increasingly making judgments based on the merits of the case rather than the ideological hang-ups of the commissioner concerned.
As banks attempt to meet the financial sector charter requirements, small firms are finding it a bit easier to get credit. But most business owners still need to mortgage their homes in order to make a start. This means entrepreneurs who do not own property are left out in the cold.
Virtually no progress has been made on the other five requests. The quality of health service continues to deteriorate, with many public-sector health professionals acknowledging that service was better pre-1994!
Prisons seem to have got a bit better at keeping criminals inside, but getting them there remains a huge problem. Crime levels are unacceptably high. Since this is the single biggest reason for skilled emigration, it desperately needs to be addressed.
Education levels remain poor. Though some schools produce excellent education, many do not. Senior government officials acknowledge 80% of our schools are broken. Yet too little is being done to fix them. And the education department seems fixated with dragging down the few well-performing schools into the mud with the rest, instead of celebrating them. Schools fortunate enough to have inherited a campus with music rooms, art rooms and physics labs are required to have 50 pupils for every teaching room in the school!
So Santa's grade is about three out of 10 - a fail. Let's hope 2008 will be better.
But it might make it easier coming up with the three most important things SA needs for next year, instead of 10.
- Fight crime. We need our crime fighters to put all their attention into catching the bad guys. And if there is too much else distracting them in other parts of their lives, they should step aside. More money must be spent on collecting and processing forensic evidence.
- Teach the children. The education system has only got worse in the past 10 years. If we can't fix all the schools, let's upgrade the good ones, give good principals extra resources and test kids so the bright ones get the opportunity to get a decent education.
- Increase accountability. When politicians and government officials fail, fire them.
Government seems to be largely in control of all the stuff that we in financial markets normally focus on, including debt levels, monetary policy and even infrastructure provision. But education, crime and accountability are perennial problems. So, Santa, please help us get those right!
Moola is head of macro strategy at Macquarie First South
Ranking the Analysts 2009
