Last week Metropolitan and the Mail & Guardian held a breakfast in Cape Town that sought to explore whether the Western Cape was making progress in the transformation process. What was intriguing was that, by the end of the event, there was no conclusion either way.
The tone of the questions gave the impression that the majority of the people attending were of the view that the Western Cape is not making much progress.
But the participants were seemingly not confident enough to articulate that view in a forthright manner. It is unlikely that the evasiveness was because of a reluctance to provoke the provincial government.
Could the reason be the realisation that the previous Western Cape government has to shoulder some of the blame? It could be that, because transformation involves both emotional and practical aspects, people in the Western Cape feel that no progress has been made.
But there has never been clarity about what transformation should deliver, particularly in this part of the world.
In the Western Cape people in power tend to emphasise equal opportunity, rather than transformation, as a corrective process that necessitates a review of how things are done, and a structured empowerment process of people disenfranchised until 1994.
This requires direct acknowledge ment of the ills brought about by the peculiarities of Western Cape racism. It would be wrong, though, to confine that unhelpful view to the Western Cape, because there are multitudes in business nationally who pay lip service to transformation.
The evidence is the usual refrain of not finding black people, and black women in particular, to fill senior positions in the private sector, or not finding transformed suppliers to meet procurement objectives.
If there had been commitment, rather than just lip service, 15 years would have been sufficient time to grow your timber.
Another interesting point made at the presentation concerned the roles government or political parties play in the transformation process.
In a view reminiscent of ‘marketing is too important to be left to marketers”, the speaker warned the audience to be wary of political parties’ short-term strategies based solely on elections.
Progressive people, particularly black people, should take charge of the transformation process and be consistent in seeking delivery from it.
Though we cannot stop believing that our political parties and governments epitomise our beliefs, we should never abrogate our responsibilities.
We should therefore make progress regardless of the politics of the day, a fact recognised by the German philosopher Hegel, who said: ‘If history is a process that oversees the triumphant march of reason towards freedom, then each consecutive era can be regarded as necessarily more progressive, rational and free than the preceding one, and every component of that era — its art, music, religion, literature, forms of governance — represents a higher stage of reason than the last.”
In all this, the state is an organic body encompassing elements of both government and civil society. Civil society’s role and responsibilities are therefore not minor.
The Western Cape — and the country — must be unequivocal in saying whether we are making progress or not.
I was going to write a lighthearted tribute to women for this important month in our calendar. This was until I read Dr Mamphela Ramphele’s foreword in Karina Turok’s excellent book, Life and Soul. She juxtaposes two points by saying: ‘So you could say South African women are in the best possible political space at present.”
Set against this is the violent wave of crime against women and children. ‘At no time in my lifetime have we seen such brutality against women as we see today.”
As if to confirm that there is no respite from this, a colleague sent me these startling statistics from the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau.
‘While global ly the average woman has 2.6 children, in sub- Saharan Africa she has 5.3 children (which is down from 6.7 children in around 1950), the world’s highest,” the report said.
Worldwide, 62% of married women of childbearing age use contraception, but in Africa the figure is 28%, according to the report, which also revealed that sub- Saharan Africa has the world’s most youthful population, ‘and it is projected to stay that way for decades”.
If this is a choice that women exercise, then it may be fine but, as it is likely to be a practice introduced and maintained by men, it is tragic. What these statistics show is that we might not be scratching the surface yet, even in new, transforming decmocracies.