What is to be done?
South Africa is not a developmental state; it is a dysfunctional state in accelerating decline. And the ANC is so trapped in its own organisational logic and discourse that it is in complete denial about what is going wrong in our society.
Pretoria cannot provide. Service delivery has become a government mythology, something public officials speak about as if they have the intention of delivering.
Policy, planning, budgeting and regulation have replaced implementation, as if they were the goods and services citizens require.
The public service does not exist to serve the public. The new political elite, born of the old, presents itself as if its self-interest is the interest of the silent majority.
During apartheid there was a common enemy; today there is only political paranoia and conspiracy theories.
We have a moral and leadership vacuum that is slowly being filled with a state and party-sponsored culture that rewards political loyalty, the promise of future business benefits, mediocrity, incompetence and corruption.
The new political elite is dazzled by the allure of power and the glitter of state resources and is salivating to sink its teeth into them. The perception that its new leader is a man of the people is misguided. Jacob Zuma is thoroughly compromised.
We need a clear turn-around strategy with the following elements:
A social consensus about the problems and potential solutions, dealing first with the manifestations (crime, electricity shortages and so on) and then the causes (lack of adequate health, education, unemployment, poverty).
A New Deal and a New Team need to be installed with a New Mandate. Neither the incumbents nor the Polokwane brigade will do.
A review and reform of economic policy. Our economy is on the verge of crisis, as indicated by a wage/price spiral, constraints on economic growth such as a skills shortage, inadequate supply chain and logistics and deteriorating infrastructure. Our growth path needs to be reconceptualised.
Imagining that small business development will generate jobs is simply wrong. Entrepreneurship is important for global competitiveness, but our economy needs to be production-led, not consumption driven and credit-financed.
Restore credibility to public institutions and practices, starting with safety and security. We must go back to basics: safety and security for all; good governance and sound organisational discipline; the rewarding of performance and zero tolerance for incompetence. Public institutions need to be strengthened through true political oversight and individual accountability, rather than slogans about collective leadership and collective accountability.
We must return to political activism, leveraging the potential of our people to start rebuilding our social fabric and institutions. We need a new definition of citizenship, one genuinely shared by all South Africans that reintegrates the black and white middle classes and the youth.
And we must make state spending count. The revenue service is delivering sterling results, but the government is not spending taxpayers’ money effectively. The Public Finance Management Act is not being used to drive accountability and better financial management in the public service.
There may be disagreement about this programme. But hopefully it will stimulate debate about our new national question: what is to be done? — Buti Zwane, Daveyton
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A forgotten law
A statutory cap on the income differentials between company directors and workers is not new, although Azad Essa seems to think so (April 18).
The 1998 Employment Equity Act requires designated employers to provide information on income differentials and where ‘disproportionate†differentials exist, employers ‘must take measures to progressively reduce†the gap.
The law further requires the Employment Conditions Commission ‘to research and investigate norms and benchmarks†for reducing differentials.
These statutory obligations have been so ignored that they are unknown to most people, doubtless because government is more concerned with being business-friendly than with social justice.
Essa suggests a cap on directors’ salaries of 50 times that of shop floor wages. During the Bill’s enactment Parliament’s labour committee spoke about an 8:1 ratio.
Maybe post-Polokwane conditions will embolden the ANC and Cosatu to dust off these long-forgotten provisions. — Jeff Rudin
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Bits about Brother Bob
The following is an excerpt from an (imaginary) interview with President Robert Mugabe:
Brother Bob: We always said the people were behind us and that the MDC would never win elections in Zimbabwe.
Reporter: Are you confirming that Zanu-PF has won?
BB: No, no … the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will announce the results when it’s finished counting. Then it’ll say we’ve won.
R: Some say you used violence and intimidation …
BB: The British imperialists want to create that impression. We assaulted only Zanu-PF members who failed mobilise the masses during the elections.
R: How was Morgan Tsvangirai injured last year?
BB: Tsvangirai colluded with Gordon Brown to get himself injured as a propaganda stunt. They were in league with that meddlesome, bitter dwarf of a bishop. If we had really beaten Tsvangirai, we would have closed both his eyes. We’re quite good in that area.
R: What about reports of people dying of hunger?
BB: A third force operated by the CIA and MI5 is causing people to die of hunger and blaming the government. Look at all my ministers, don’t they personify the land of milk and honey?
R: For a while I thought you were going to concede defeat in the elections.
BB: The CIA and the MI5 slipped a friendship and happiness drug into my food and I lost all ability to be brutal or cheat; the mere thought of playing fair gave me goosebumps. For for a moment I was truly happy — how immoral can you get?
When I discovered this plot I realised we’d won the elections by a landslide. I can assure the world that I’ve fully recovered.
(Bodyguard whispers in the president’s ear.)
BB: I’m sorry, I have to terminate this interview, I have an urgent meeting with the Chinese ambassador over a little matter of weapons. — Thobixhala Phango, Mafikeng
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Dear Satawu,
Now that the ship of death has left Durban, the people of Zimbabwe owe you a debt of gratitude. Your refusal to unload the cargo on the An Yue Jiang was a profound act of humanity from one set of African brothers to another.
What makes it even more profound is that you hearts went out to people you have not met and may not ever meet.
You did not analyse the situation to death, you didn’t wait for some ‘expert†to give you their opinion — you simply sided with innocent, defenceless Zimbabwean citizens in their time of need. —Everisto (a Zimbabwean in Canada)
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Thabo Mbeki has sided with Bob again. What is the purpose of a president if he turns a blind eye to the suffering of people when he has the power to stop it? — Sandra Pow Chong, Port Elizabeth
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White males call the shots
Saleem Badat has offered some useful ways to revamp declining critical scholarship in South Africa (April 11). He proposes that the ruling party needs to show ‘openness to such scholarship and debateâ€. His suggestion that the National Research Foundation, the Human Sciences Research Council and the SABC could be more socially relevant and critical are spot on.
However, the system of innovation and the bias towards the natural sciences in South Africa involves the hierarchical establishment of knowledge production that goes beyond South Africa. Try to explain the rarity of African females in academic knowledge production, for example. Why is this species so scarce in this field?
What worries is the lack of debate about discourses that dominate knowledge production, especially in the social sciences.
The NRF, the HSRC and the whole system of higher education continues to subscribe to an international ideological censorship machine that defines academic excellence by what is published in specific journals dominated by white males, mostly from Europe and America.
Our own institutions and systems have no faith in us — worse, they condemn us to be clients of certain ideologies by subjecting us to patronage of Europe and America.
In our system books are not even recognised as a measure of excellence, even if peer-reviewed. This is because we need peers trusted by Western journals to deem us excellent.
This has had extremely damaging effects if you think of the development concepts and political models from elsewhere we have adopted which have no relevance to our situation.
The public spaces Badat refers to are also penetrated by those who have subscribed to the ideologies of the ‘censoring crew†— and this explains why black women are absent from academic publishing and in critical debate in the media. — Pearl Sithole
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Recycling the NP
In his rant against the Scorpions ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe described the DA as ‘the recycled National Partyâ€.
He needs to be reminded that the ANC introduced the floor-crossing system so that the National Party could recycle itself into the bosom of the ANC.
There NP stalwarts now enjoy high office, ranging from Cabinet members to ambassadors and MPs.
They are now in the right place, because the ANC and the National Party share the same ideology of racial nationalism. — Helen Zille
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Poor example
I’m a second-year BSc student at Rhodes University. It is obvious that the university and its students are not pulling their weight at a time of power crisis.
During a quick walk around my residence, which houses only 50 students, I have just turned off 20 lights left blazing during the middle of the day.
Throughout the winter months bar heaters are left on around the residence. Entire lecture venues have lights burning at night. The computer labs have hundreds of machines running 24/7 even though only a handful are used after hours and on weekends.
Should universities not perhaps be leading by example? –Rob
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West will also crumble
Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya fails to confront David Bullard’s central point, which lies at the heart of most racist discourse. This is that Africans would have remained at the same level of development had Europeans not ‘intervenedâ€.
Instead of offering a rebuttal, most commentators would rather extract an apology from the offending person.
There are two reasons for this. First, Africa today is in a state of arrested development and one can argue that some parts of the continent appear to be regressing. This sad state of affairs appears to confirm Bullard’s claim.
But the second and most critical reason is that people have no idea how Europe came to be as developed, to the point where it was able to colonise most of the world.
No society can claim sole ownership of knowledge. Each successful culture has, as its foundation, the efforts and knowledge of preceding civilisations.
The Greeks and Romans had no problem acknowledging the huge influence that great African civilisations had on them; only modern proponents of Western superiority believe they are imbued with supernatural powers.
Civilisations are born, mature and die. From the ashes of the West another power will develop. There is nothing unique about the domination of one group by another –Âhistory is littered with episodes of conquest and subjugation. — Thapelo Motshudi, Carletonville
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In brief
You quote acting National Prosecuting Authority head Mokotedi Mpshe as saying ‘We are bound by Polokwane …†(April 11). The NPA’s function is to exercise ‘without fear, favour or prejudice†the powers given it in the Constitution. The proposition that it is bound by the decisions of a political party represents an unconstitutional blurring of the line between party and state. —Paul Hoffman, director, Centre for Constitutional Rights
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Is Telford Vice a sports journalist or a racist? His article on April 18 is nothing more than Afrikaner-bashing. What happened to Andy Capostagno? — Esther Coetzee, Kroonheuwel
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The M&G reveals that South Africa has the world’s biggest skills exodus. What has taken Robert Mugabe 20 years has been accomplished by Eskom in a matter of months. — ML Barber, Mount Edgecombe
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There seems to be something missing in Kevin Holland’s hyperbolic dismissal of my letter (April 18) suggesting a difference between sane faith and wackier varieties. Could it perhaps be an argument? — Chris Chatteris, Jesuit Institute, Johannesburg
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The PAC expresses its anger at the systematic attacks orchestrated by ANC councillors around Tshwane on Mozambicans and Zimbabweans. The source of the problem is corruption. Councillors who have sold stands illegally are now agitating for communities to kill the occupants then resell them. — Nkgetheng Thubakgale, PAC Tshwane