If centralism dominates the new Constitution, we will have wasted an=20 opportunity for grassroots empowerment, argues IFP MP Farouk Cassim
IS THE most memorable epoch in the history of Africa about to be=20 witnessed with the finalisation of the Constitution of the new Republic of=
South Africa? (The Second Republic?) Will our Constitution provide, in Peter Drucker=D5s words, the landmarks fo=
tomorrow? Furthermore, will we, like =D2corporations and institutions that=
learnt the lesson of internal diversification=D3, give federalism a chance =
flourish in our country so that we can all look forward to the third=20 millennium with utmost confidence and eagerness? These are the questions that have to be faced. If we in our country welcome=
the chance to divide our national powers between the mother state and the=
daughter provinces, we shall serve our people=D5s needs most effectively. W=
have to do more than effect a multi-national network of power=20 arrangements. We need to achieve, in keeping with modern political=20 dynamics, a further network of transnational political and monetary=20 arrangements, the Southern African Common Market. Networking is today=D5s buzzword. Networking is the essential ingredient in=
every walk of modern life. Our Constitution, for it to be epoch-making,=20 must be the first Constitution in history to embody networking as its centr=
A failure to achieve a high level of networking will mean that our=20 Constitution makers were still =D2dominated by the Newtonian image of=20 massive power, extended by a sovereign agency through the operation of=20 central force=D3. This would be a colossal pity. Behold: the mountain would=
have brought forth a molehill. British futurologist Stephen Toulmin, a perspicacious and incisive writer,=
warns that: =D2From now on, the overriding concern of administrators and=20 politicians can no longer be to enhance the scope, power and glory of those=
centralised institutions that took shape and worked unfettered in the heyda=
of the nation state, when sovereignty was its own reward.=D3 What Toulmin says is so apposite to our present circumstances. It would,=20 however, be an unmitigated disaster if power networking is made to=20 prostrate at the feet of centralism, the fallen god (figuratively speaking)=
There are some in the ANC who will argue that federalism will denude=20 power at the centre. Can they please suggest how else people at the=20 grassroots level will enjoy genuine empowerment? In Toulmin=D5s words,=20 there is a =D2need to disperse authority and (to) adapt it more discerningl=
and precisely: on the one hand, to the needs of local areas and=20 communities, and on the other, to wider transnational functions=D3.=20 (Cosmopolis p206) The centralised Leviathan that was the apartheid regime showed, in all its=
aspects, how unsuited it is to modern times. This nation will soon have a=
new Constitution which it will receive on approbation. It will keep it if i=
likes it. If it does not, where shall we get another chance? This really must help to concentrate our minds.