Even the most remote political observer would have noticed that South Africa crossed a critical threshold this week. Whereas previous public exchanges between the African National Congress on the one hand and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SouthAfrican Communist Party on the other have ended in stalemate, the past week’s exchanges revealed that South Africa’s political discourse has shifted leftwards.
Firstly, it appears that while the tripartite alliance leaders have been talking past each other at the rhetorical level, they seem to be finding common ground at the level of policy formulation. The outcomes of the ANC’s policy conference revealed that little of substance divides them.
The broad thrust of the policy conference resolutions centred on creating a viable economy that is able to generate prosperity while combating poverty. High on the agenda was the consolidation of the social security net, improving the delivery of free basic services and ensuring the provision of basic foodstuffs to the most desperate.
Even on the issue of privatisation — the main reason relations are so strained — the ANC resolved to put in place mechanisms to ensure that the effects of its essentially conservative economic policies would be softened and the government should go out of its way to protect jobs.
These are the very issues that Cosatu went out on the streets this week to demand action on. Yet, because of the bad blood that has developed between them over recent years, the protagonists will not concede that their concerns and strategies are converging and that implementation remains the only issue of substance dividing them.
The reason for this is that the battle has now moved beyond the original issues, as evidenced by President Thabo Mbeki’s attack on his party’s allies at the opening of the conference. Mbeki’s attaching of the “ultra-leftist” label to his internal foes and his daring them to leave the ANC fold is proof that centre-right parties have ceased to be important players in the contest for political space. No longer bothered by the carping of the traditionally white parties and the belligerent grumblings of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Mbeki and his inner circle now see the left as the biggest obstacle to the direction in which they want to take the country. And so the campaign of delegitimising left opposition will intensify.
And the left — concerned about being rendered irrelevant if they acknowledge their own gains — will up the ante and continue to portray the country’s rulers as indifferent to the plight of the poor and as foes of working-class interests. The battle is now over who can be trusted to best represent the interests of the poor.
This is why the debate over whether the alliance will break up is now a moot point. If the allies cannot see they have found common ground, it means they do not want to find it.
This particular contest between struggle brethren will no doubt be much fiercer than that waged between the ANC and parties to its right. It is a contest that is likely to test the fabric of our democratic infrastructure. It will be the duty of all us — those in government, in political parties, in trade unions and civil society — to ensure we negotiate this phase as we negotiated more difficult phases of our transition.
The media will have to play a particularly critical role in telling the story of this phase and enriching the outcome of the experience. This newspaper will certainly rise to that challenge. As an institution that played its part in the demise of apartheid, the Mail & Guardian will ensure it plays its part in ensuring that this democracy flourishes.
This we will do by reporting accurately and fairly, reflecting the society as it changes, celebrating the victories scored against poverty and backwardness and protecting the values of April 27 1994 from being violated by the corrupt, the unethical and the lazy.
And as South Africa enters this era, in which more than at any other time we will need to be talking about the direction of the country, the M&G will be the theatre of ideas.
Raid of the ‘cherry-pickers’?
On the face of it, centralising control of the country’s game reserves and other conservation services seems to make sense. Priceless natural treasures are being squandered and pillaged at an alarming rate, often in the provincial parks set up to protect them.
But does this centralisation, mooted in two draft Bills expected to be tabled in Parliament soon, fall in line with the Constitution? Is the intention of the national government to “cherry-pick” the most lucrative reserves and neglect the loss-makers? How will provincial conservation authorities fund their broader environmental programmes if they lose the revenues from their prime ecotourism attractions?
Does national government have better resources and personnel to manage the labyrinthine permit system than the provincial officials already doing the job? Or is the suggested take-over more an issue of grabbing ultimate control?
These are the kind of questions that need to be thrashed out in open public debate about the Bills, the most critical pieces of legislation for the future sustainability of South Africa’s natural heritage. And the provinces need to be drawn into the debate in a constructive way — not least by making sure they are not demeaned in the process.