Things are about as good as you could possibly get considering that we had to come from being an Apartheid Police state and we are now vibrant muliti party democracy with one of the best constitutions in the world and compared to eastern European countries, when it comes to civil rights and political freedoms South Africans are millions of miles ahead of them.
But in terms of improving the country I think we need to look at how the government could have done better in providing services to people which is extremely hard when you consider the resources at the countries disposal.
So a few things that could have been done would be:
1)No Cadre deployment in the civil service- while the previous white dominated civil service can hardly be said to be non political(I think a study after 94 found that more than 80% of them supported the nationalists) their skills need to be retained, however this should not be done at the expense of transformation which needs to happen.
2) In education, moving away from an education system built around writing exams to get into University and more focus on vocational schooling. Our current education system leaves kids who are not academically inclined basically un skilled after they graduate from school. We have a shortage of Artisans and other skilled and semi skilled workers, so changing that would help give young people skills which they can transfer once they graduate.
3) A true universal and free healthcare system.
4) Real land reform, which distributes land at a faster rate than what is currently happening.
5) Stronger devolution of power to the provinces like in Canada so that they can manage problems with service delivery in a manner which best suites that province.
6) An immigration system which encourages immigrants with skills to come into the country without ridiculous restrictions. And make it easier for people to obtain citizenship in the country.
7) Development focused on improving services in townships instead of treating townships which been around for 20-30 years as being temporary living spaces.