The Value of Wisdom When Facts Are Our Friends

This executive summary outlines the key points from the provided audio excerpts by Prof. Erwin Schwella, focusing on his views regarding the state of South Africa, the challenges faced, and proposed solutions, particularly for the agricultural sector.

Prof. Schwella begins by expressing his deep love for South Africa and its people, acknowledging the significant contribution of the audience to the country's welfare. He emphasizes the need for wisdom when facts and realities are our friends, stating that neither positivity nor negativity helps, but realities will guide us. He suggests a radical honesty about the country's leadership, likening both Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa to bullies, and declares his lifelong dislike for governments, recognizing only God and his spouse as legitimate authorities over him.

Key Challenges Identified: Prof. Schwella highlights that South Africa faces serious problems, including issues with infrastructure (like roads), challenges in the value chain for finding vaccines, and the viability of agriculture due to reduced yields and threats to rural safety. He also points to a fundamental hostility within the government.

Proposed Solutions and Call to Action: To address these challenges, Prof. Schwella advocates for a multi-faceted approach centered on data, information, knowledge, and wisdom, utilizing new technology and business models. He proposes three core actions, with a fourth added by him:

• Analyze the problems (the "A" of analysis).
• Act activistically.
• Take action.
• Innovate, which includes not only technological innovation but also social innovation.

He encourages thinking beyond conventional "thinking outside the box" and instead suggests "tearing away the box" to come up with entirely new solutions. Prof. Schwella calls for a substantive debate about transformation, arguing it should be driven by the values of the South African Constitution (Article 195), emphasizing effectiveness and ethical conduct, rather than the "corrupt exploitation" of the National Democratic Revolution's ideology.

Concrete Handling Proposals for the Agricultural Sector: Prof. Schwella stresses that involvement is crucial, not just as individuals but collectively and through institutions. He outlines specific strategies for growth and overcoming scarcity, which should involve distributing growth and prosperity, not scarcity. His recommendations include:

• Inclusive Social Innovation: This involves inspiring ideas, inclusive institutions, and impactful implementation.
• Prototyping: Build smaller versions of desired solutions, continuously test them, learn from the results, and refine them for better functioning before scaling and spreading.
• Co-creation and Collaboration: Farmers should cooperatively co-create and pool their innovation.
• Commercializing Expertise: Pool and commercialize the vast knowledge, patents, and intellectual property within the agricultural community to generate capital and capacity.
• Self-Funding Infrastructure: Explore developing decentralized, self-funded solutions for tertiary roads, acknowledging existing capital and capacity challenges.
• Cooperative Banking/Social Enterprises: Establish cooperative banks or social enterprises (like a "VBS bank with integrity") to address capital and capacity problems, providing financial support that traditional commercial banks might not. He cites the example of "Medicope," a medical cooperative, as a model.
• Capacity Building for Essential Needs: Collaborate with institutions like the University of the Free State and generic medicine manufacturers to create capacity for producing essential items like vaccines.
• Knowledge Cooperation: Form a knowledge cooperation to pool, commercialize, and offer knowledge nationally and internationally, leveraging the fact that knowledge grows when shared.
• Internationalization: Encourage younger generations to gain international experience and build global networks within comparable agricultural unions to leverage opportunities, including exchange rates, for the benefit of local initiatives.
• Continuous Learning: Maintain experimental and continuous learning as "farmers are people with plans".
• Creating an Innovation Center: He suggests establishing a center for innovation within the Free State agricultural union.

Prof. Schwella concludes by sharing several "wisdom sayings," including that what hurts you is not what you don't know, but what you think you know. He also emphasizes the importance of self-knowledge as the foundation of wisdom and the necessity of never running out of options.