Facing the challenges of a post-apartheid South Africa should be an urgent priority, especially for the media Barney Pityana As a nation we are always at our best when we face a common cause. When we queued together to cast our votes in 1994 or when we erupted as one nation when Francois Pienaar hoisted the Rugby World Cup in 1995, or the common anxiety and shame expressed about the antics of Hansie Cronje or, more recently, the anger at the world about the unfairness that led to the World Cup 2006 being awarded to Germany.
We are at our worst when we should be debating and seeking common solutions to difficult and maybe intractable
problems, whether it is an approach to the HIV/Aids pandemic or the scourge of racism which engulfs our land today. We are inclined on such occasions to blame one another and where blame sticks to no one, we blame apartheid.
We do the same about the prevalence of crime instead of each and every one of us doing something about it, no matter how small. We have elected a government which we then promptly set apart from ourselves and objectivise. We heap all blame on “them”. We are not a people who take responsibility. We are not a nation of doers. We must avoid the too-easy resort to blaming and whingeing. Under apartheid we knuckled down, however few we might have been, and engaged in the task of changing our world for good.
I have bad news for those of us who believe that the struggle to create a great South Africa ended when president FW de Klerk announced a new day for South Africa on February 2 1990 or when Nelson Mandela was sworn in as the first democratically elected and representative head of state on May 10 1994. The task of creating a new South Africa had only just begun. What we now face is the call or resolve which we must all take, to build South Africa anew. For that we should reiterate some core values which, in my judgement, have been captured eloquently in our Constitution.
l The Republic of South Africa is one sovereign democratic state founded on the following values: (a) Human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms. (b) Non-racialism and non-sexism. That should be a statement of national identity that inspires us to great heights, shapes our relationship with one another and informs our relationship with the world. This, in my view is not just a mere legal principle but an ethical and moral order, a testament of faith.
I put it like that because I believe that we need to have the measure of the enormous ethical challenge that confronts us. That is what grounds our personality, gives us confidence and that is what will help us construct better and healthier interpersonal and human relations.
l Second, I believe that if our historic understanding of solidarity ever meant anything, it must mean that we have a commitment to ensure that our national resources are better shared and that individual effort is rewarded, corruption is punished and that there is a safety net for the weak, vulnerable and marginalised, the elderly, women and children and those whose unfortunate circumstances renders them vulnerable.
Somehow, we need to capture more the idea of a caring society as Aneurin Bevan urged of Britain after the war. We cannot just be a nation steeped in greed, selfishness and individualism. If we were to care more we could marshal our collective energies, take pride in the notion of the “public good” and meet the challenges that we face together. To do that, though, we shall need to capture once again the moral high ground that propelled our struggle. l Finally, we need a vanguard movement to pull this nation forward in these challenging times. No nation that is based on discrimination and practices discrimination either formally through its policies or informally in interpersonal relations can hope to deal with the challenges of human development. It cannot do so because it minimises the wealth of resources available to it. It, therefore, surprises me that so many in the media are cynical about our efforts at eradicating racism in our society or pay lip service to the urgency of dealing with racism in our society. “Discrimination in the effects of policy,” says the Human Development Report 2000, “takes time and extra effort to eradicate – but is no less important because historical injustice easily becomes present and future injustice if it is not addressed.” This is an extract from a speech delivered by Dr Pityana, chair of the South African Human Rights Commission, to the Mail & Guardian’s 15th birthday party last Friday