Advice to the Zuma cabinet fits broadly into two categories. Both sets of advisers are half right, but most miss half the point.

The business community, afraid of a shift to the left, calls for the status quo. “This is a time for caution, for holding the ship steady through the storm and ensuring we survive in decent shape,” wrote one respected commentator, representing that view.

That advice is surely right as far as it goes. Macro-economic policy has been in good hands. Our banks are amongst the soundest in the world. There is a planned stimulus package of infrastructure spending which is now being rolled out.

We don’t want to throw away our hard-earned reputation for fiscal responsibility. And the state should be wary of moving into areas of the economy it does not understand and cannot service.

The other category of advice is from advocates of a developmental state. Its critics say, rightly, that our civil service currently lacks the capacity to function as a developmental state. Nothing in the past 15 years encourages one to believe we are ready to become one.

But South Africa’s experience since 1994, and the models of almost every state that has developed from underdevelopment into modern success, both indicate we need more than the status quo.

Here are seven ideas for radical change that we do need. They represent the low-hanging fruit, policies that could raise our growth rate and the national mood, and prepare us for world economic revival beyond our current possibilities.

One. Look at Zimbabwe strictly from South Africa’s perspective. Our economic interests have clearly not been to the fore in our Zimbabwe policy. Recovery of that economy could add up to one percent to our economic growth. Does anyone doubt that, in comparable circumstances, President Obama would appoint a super high level special envoy, someone like Cyril Ramaphosa, signal he has the president’s complete confidence and mandate, and get him all over President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai like a bad rash?

Two. Look at the Western Cape in terms of South Africa’s interests. Stop this bickering. See the region for the tourist Mecca that it is, a potential job-creating machine with enormous potential to capitalise on the international sporting events from now to next year’s World Cup. Let the African National Congress and Democratic Alliance restrict their competition to a fight for credit for service delivery, not toilet slang.

Three. Information technology. If there ever was low-hanging fruit whose job-creating capacity has been ignored, it’s the Information Economy. Fixing it requires aggressive change in government policy. Fifteen years after plans were laid to be implemented to bring down IT costs and “bridge the digital divide”, our system is still more expensive than Morocco’s. It’s entirely the result of bad policy, badly implemented.

The opportunity of the telecommunications and dotcom boom of the 1990s, when the world’s telecom giants were banging on our door looking for investment homes, have been lost. But rapidly opening up competition to Telkom can still help turn us around, opening new jobs in new businesses.

Four. Part of fixing IT, as with most other sectors, requires an education policy targeted at filling our skills gap. How much have our simultaneous crises of high unemployment and a serious skills shortage changed since the advent of democracy? Very little. We need to train far more IT specialists, artisans, engineers, and various kinds of professionals.

Five. Green energy. We need a more aggressive, clear and well communicated policy, that prepares us to participate in new twenty-first century industries. Some parts of green energy are hard and slow, but some are relatively easy and quick.

We could do much more to communicate and promote the benefits of solar water heating, which works, saving money and coal. We should promote ramping up production at home of catalytic converters for cars, since they use platinum, most of which comes from South Africa. Since the converters are part of the green energy agenda, they have a big future.

Better still, make green transportation part of policy for the car industry as a whole. It is in South Africa’s interests that the existing international car companies manufacturing in South Africa make some of their green models, hybrid or electric, in the country. That keeps us in the future of the world market.

Six. Experiment. Contrary to the status quo advisers, we need lots of small, pilot experiments in new businesses that do not cost much money, to see which ones work and create jobs. Government policy should support this, monitor results and discard or expand the pilot projects based on results. That’s how China and several other emerging economies were built.

Seven. Communicate what you are attempting to the public. Each Minister should champion their sectors and explain their plans so the country knows what direction it’s going in. Voters do not mind a minister who admits failure when an experiment was well thought out, and costs controlled.

I don’t know about you. But implementation of ideas like these, clearly communicated, would make many South Africans remember the optimism of 1994 and be proud again.

President Mbeki squandered the support of thinkers, artists, academics and engineers. They are among the people who innovate and inspire a country, and make it grow. President Zuma’s government could get them back, if he really wants them.