Twenty-nine years later – Are we truly a free nation?

‘The ANC government is doing to black people what the apartheid government did’

Twenty-nine years ago, between 26 and 29 April 1994, millions of South Africans queued for the first time to exercise their democratic right to vote. But, despite a democratically elected and predominantly black government, the quality of life for most black South Africans remains in constant deterioration. One has to ask: has democracy failed them, as the apartheid government did — has the ANC government failed to deliver a better life for all? 

We are at a crossroads and the new road to freedom, paved with platitudes about a better life for all, promises to lead to the same destination as the racially charged road we travelled for hundreds of years. Our government is running our country into ruin and we can only stop it if we raise our fists and voices to say enough — and if we don’t stop it soon, we will have nothing left to save.

At a panel discussion organised by law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr and the Mail & Guardian commemorating Freedom Day, Chancellor of Free State University Professor Bonang Mohale lamented that South Africa holds world records for all the wrong reasons. 

We are the most unequal country in the world, with the highest rate of unemployment, and our government is characterised by corruption which costs the country an estimated R27 billion rands annually, with the addition of between R159 and R400 billion lost in illicit financial flows. We have one of the world’s highest rates of gender-based violence (and women are excluded from economic and political opportunities), and there are endless service delivery protests that are becoming increasingly violent as more and more people become despondent.

Our healthcare, hygiene and sanitation facilities are deteriorating, further reducing people’s access and rights to basic healthcare, water and decent sanitation. Everywhere we look, we see signs of a failing and unaccountable state that cannot even deliver basic services. The lockdown revealed these challenges more glaringly when child nutrition became a prominent issue, revealing the high levels of hunger among many South Africans. We saw a further increase in unemployment, hunger and the risk of domestic violence — all of which resulted in mental health challenges, for which our government did not have solutions.

Instead of coming to our rescue during a crisis, our government officials stole from us and left us to fend for ourselves. Instead of improving the quality of life of the poor, we are seeing that our leaders are more committed to filling their own pockets with state funds meant for service delivery than they are committed to serving us, the public. We are now compelled to think and act to get ourselves out of this crisis, because we have become like sweet lambs headed to the slaughterhouse.

“We need to go back to the role of social movements in the 80s in bringing about this democracy, because we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for social movements such as the UDF, its affiliate groups and civil society. One of the biggest mistakes we made in 1990 was to demobilise civic organisations and social movements. Social movements are key because they mobilise for the poorest of the poor, those who are always forgotten when we are coming up with solutions. Today, social movements organise around 2 000 protests per year, and yet the solutions that come from these groups are often trivialised,” said Director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at Wits, Professor Tshepo Madlingozi. 

“The role of civil society and social movements is not simply to mobilise for the marginalised part of society; it is to get us to reimagine South Africa fundamentally. We have to listen to these voices that are telling us that it is not enough to merely end state capture, because you can end state capture and the lived experiences of many would still remain impoverished. Social justice is important, and there is no social justice without reparation and historical redress, which is what social movements are calling our attention to,” added Madlingozi.

Chapter nine institutions — such as the Public Protector’s Office, the South African Human Rights Commission, the Commission for Gender Equality, the Auditor-General, the Independent Electoral Commission and others — function to strengthen and guard our democracy by holding our government accountable. However, as we have seen with the endless commissions and reports in the past 29 years, the reports from these institutions are almost always just noted, and their recommendations are barely implemented by our government. “It is not so much the Constitution, but rather a lack of commitment to it,” said Head of Education at public interest law centre Section 27, Dr Faranaaz Veriava.

Veriava pointed out that section 195 of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act in our Constitution can help lawyers to hold the government accountable. The Act emphasises (among others) public participation, the maintenance of professional ethics, redressing imbalances of the past, and accountability to the public in the administration of public services. Section 27 used section 195 of the Act to defend the vulnerable mental health patients of Life Esidimeni who were abandoned by the government, resulting in over 144 deaths. Former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke also used the Act in his final judgement to analyse whether the state had abided by their section 195 responsibilities in closing down the mental health facility, and found that the state had failed to do so. 

The role of business

“If South Africa is going to work, it will work because business has decided that South Africa will work. It will work because all of us as civil society have said ‘not in our name’, it will work because the people who call themselves our leaders have abandoned us and saw this as an opportunity to enrich themselves rather than a privilege to improve the quality of lives of the majority who don’t have [means],” said Mohale.

 He called for businesses to confront political questions and be involved in coming up with solutions because they also benefit from a just society, where more people have access to a share of the economy. Many of those who did the dance with state capture came from the business sector. “We can’t speak of a just society if businesses are seen to be in cahoots with corruption,” added Mohale, adding that we are “worse off today than we were in 1994”.

Corporate law firms must commit themselves to social justice and advise companies in ways that benefit everyone, instead of using the law to perpetuate inequalities for the financial benefit of their clients. Business principles of exploitation cannot be valued over human rights obligations, and if change is to come, businesses must commit themselves to the realisation of basic human rights for all. “Issues of human rights are not just issues of pro bono; they should be an integral part of a law firm’s work,” said Madlingozi.

The media is also important

In addition to businesses, civil society, law firms and social movements, another key player in guarding South African democracy and holding those in power accountable is the media. From the Nkandla scandal, which first broke as a story about stolen government money meant to build a police station; the constant investigative journalism on state capture, which informed us that South Africa had lost more than R1.2 trillion; to the reporting on Marikana, where the government was supposed to work with Lonmin to help build houses for miners living in impoverished conditions and instead used violence to retaliate when the miners protested, killing 34 of them. 

Although freedom of the press is enshrined in our Constitution, whistleblowers remain unprotected from the consequences of challenging the powers that be. Deputy editor at the Mail & Guardian, Athandiwe Saba, shared the story of how the CEO of the Railway Safety Regulator threatened her life when she reported the corruption taking place within the organisation. Despite such danger, and the limitations that newsrooms and journalists face, we continue to read stories awakening us to government failures. To an impatient eye, it would appear as though media reports don’t lead to much accountability, given the volume of scandals emanating from our government. However, with time, consistent reporting and collective effort from civil society, chapter nine institutions and social movements, accountability is possible.

“This work does take time, and if we keep doing it, someone will listen and do something about it,” said Saba, who called for the public to also support the media. “The media, in turn, also needs to support civil society, in spotlighting the work being done by civil society to challenge the government and mobilise for the marginalised. Our corrupt government has failed to address the racial injustices of apartheid, it has stolen our chances of a better life through corruption and has now become an enemy to its own people.”

Saba concluded: “It is time we realised that the ANC government is doing to black people what the apartheid government did, and to remember Nelson Mandela’s words for a solution to this when he said, ‘if the ANC does to you what the apartheid government did to you, then you must do to the ANC what you did to the apartheid government’.”

— Welcome Mandla