Douglas Schorr

South Africa’s unspoken crisis: 75% of adults need supervision to function in a modern economy.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ) measures capacity to function in modern economies. To date, the design of the IQ tests makes them the best tools available to predict with reasonable confidence that a person who scores around and about 100 points will fully function in modern society; 90 suggests basic coping ability; and below 85 requires supervision.

Global studies show that at 105–106, the ethnic Chinese zone has the highest average IQ scores, with China specifically at 102. Western Europe follows with national averages in the range 96 to 102, Eastern Europe at 96. There is a sharp drop to 90 for Turkey and surrounding countries… the old world countries. Averages of 81–84 are recorded for southern Mediterranean-edge countries; it was there our early adventurer ancestors spent time before crossing into Eurasia. Similar scores are recorded for other Middle Eastern nations and those countries straddling the equator outside of Africa.

With an average IQ of 68, Sub-Saharan Africa is the odd one out.

Though there is an outlier score of 77 by Brainstats, which fits the suggestion that some folk of those countries that had the advantage of either British or French colonisation do record IQs higher by 10%, South Africa’s average is generally recorded at 69.

Extensive studies by the U.S. military determined that individuals below 83 IQ cannot be productively trained for any role—a clear indicator of the inability to function in any modern organizational structure without assistance. Even more critically, separate research established 70 as the criteria for intellectual disability diagnosis. This means that folks scoring at this level have serious limitations in areas such as learning and reasoning. They are likely to have severe limitations in self-help skills and should be considered ten-year-olds and be assisted accordingly.

Nearly 50 million of South Africa’s 60 million fall below the 85 mark. Of that, 30 are at or below the critical 70 score. If Brainstats’ 77 is applied, then 42 million would fall below the critical 85 IQ mark.

This is about the country’s capacity to participate in a modern economy that must compete globally to survive. A nation cannot sustain itself when the majority of its population requires constant supervision and support and is NOT getting it. They are getting such a meagre monthly payout that not only does the cost of collecting make it unworthy, but it is so small the recipients are made to feel they are pilfering from the government. This is why the proposed SANNA has to become a reality “yesterday.”

The harsh truth is that each rand a person consumes more than they produce drives the country toward collapse. No amount of international aid or remittances can support a nation where the majority cannot function independently in a modern economy. SANNA aims to do no more than enable the poor to turn that around—produce just one rand more than they consume.

This isn’t about a small percentage needing support—it’s about a nation where the majority functions at a child’s level in terms of modern economic capability. No amount of political correctness, brilliantly written woke narratives, or international aid can change this biological reality. SANNA must build programs that will both give adult bodies housing 10-year-old cognitive capabilities pride of contribution and, even if it amounts to just a rand a day or a year, reverse welfare. It is not that there is nothing to productively do; it is that the political leadership fears lifting the denial.