As South Africans, we have seen in the early years of our democracy what innate good the country and its people possess
(Gallo)
On 21 May 2021, the Strategic Dialogue Group (SDG) invited Professor Sizwe Mabizela, vice-chancellor of Rhodes University, to address its annual general meeting. He chose to tackle the topic: “The role of intellectuals in the struggle to consolidate our democracy.”
His opening comment was: “Our democratic Constitution enjoins us to fashion, out of a society brutalised and kept apart by centuries of colonialism and decades of apartheid, a more just, a more humane, a more caring, a fairer, a more equitable, a more inclusive and a more compassionate society; one that is democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous and united in its diversity; one that is rooted in the democratic values, fundamental human rights, social justice, human dignity and equality. We must create a society in which we all can appreciate that our own humanity can only reach its fullness if we defend, affirm, and advance the humanity of others.”
This has been echoed by the national foundations that are named after several previous leaders of our society.
He further alluded to our constitutional democracy experiencing severe strains characterised by every single day its citizens witnessing the promise of a better South Africa fading into a distant horizon.
The SDG pondered the question of the role of professionals and intellectuals, not as an elitist issue but as an obligation cast upon them to contribute more to societal development. It debated the question to dig deeper on reasons society educates and nurtures its young. To what end is this investment objective pursued? Individual or collective or societal benefit? How does society reap the benefits?
When society asks itself deep existential questions, how should those who benefited from its developmental investment respond? The question quickly strays into a matter of individual and collective conscience, viewed through the lens of our country’s social strata.
South Africa has many pockets of excellence that developed over the past 30 years of democracy and prior. Many such pockets are the products of a democratic dispensation which was brought about by the blood and tears (including lost lives) of many South Africans who yearned to invest in future generations. They yearned for future generations to enjoy equal opportunities to grow their country. Each freedom fighter had dreams of living in a prosperous country where their contribution would be appreciated by society irrespective of colour, religion, culture. Some picked up arms. Others adopted open social defiance as a weapon. Others used stones to send stern messages about how they wanted to be governed. And others used prayer effectively to encourage strength through struggle.
A small but very significant character of the quest for a democratic South Africa was the growing non-racial resistance to apartheid as the years advanced. The country’s education institutions became sites of pitched battles between armed security forces and students armed mostly with wit and stones.
With the country’s economic growth inspiring confidence immediately after the 1994 democratic euphoria and despite influential naysayers, it is important to underscore this stable growth with reality. The new democratic government had a mammoth task to turn euphoria, aspirations and hope into tangible advances for a nation reeling from the fresh scars of apartheid governance. This appeared a dream too distant and unreal to achieve. Avoiding instant failure of an inexperienced or untested government seemed insurmountable. The stability that resulted from the efforts of a nation that resolved to be at peace with its flaws and fortunes became the envy of a peace-loving world. The economy grew as did other human development indices.
Then, boom! Things went asunder. We were hit by something big and ugly.
“South Africa has found herself on a dangerously uncertain path — a directionless corruption of our body politic that has led to the current state of paralysis in social, economic, political and governance spheres and national despair,” declared the collective of foundations. Could it be possible that we avoided looking into the effects of trauma and generational poverty and how these would affect behaviour once freedom was attained? Irrespective, such collective failure would be no excuse to allow greed to fester and poison our society.
As the foundations have pronounced, it is necessary that this nation comes together in a national dialogue to “once again map out a vision and programme of exponential development over the next period of our democracy”. Some thought must go into understanding what enabled an environment of self-interest to settle at the expense of national pride that all citizens should possess. The re-visioning and programming process should not gloss over this.
The next question is: who should participate in the national dialogue?
The 2024 national and provincial elections held on 29 May delivered a clear message to all political parties — we are not happy with your politics and political conduct. The young people even had a louder message, circulated in various communication channels and expressed in youth lingua franca indicating that they had little or no interest in current politics, did not trust politicians and had little hope for their future. Many political analysts warned about a society showing signs of losing hope in the very idea of a democracy.
Even though pondered in May 2021, the SDG question regarding the role of intellectuals and professionals in the “struggle to consolidate our democracy” was apt. By extension, is it possible to imagine this nation’s products of education institutions coming out in big numbers to contribute to a prosperous future of their country? How best can these members of society demonstrate their patriotism beyond caring for self and their families? Could their experiences and feelings of exclusion from the body politic continue to confine them to the dark corners of culture, preoccupied with self-interest issues?
Activist and intellectual Titus Mafolo, during a recent address to a gathering of the Gauteng Chapter of the SDG, invoked the lessons of the three allegories from Plato’s Republic. Of interest is the Allegory of the Cave. The clear message was, as Plato observed: “When we turn our eyes to things whose colours are no longer in the light of day but in the gloom of night, the eyes are dimmed and seem nearly blind, as if clear vision were no longer in them, yet when one turns them on things illuminated by the sun, they see clearly, and vision appears in those same eyes.”
As South Africans, we have seen in the early years of our democracy what innate good the country and its people possess. We have also seen and experienced the effect of dark clouds like the “gloom of the night”. We have experienced the gloom — “a parlous state of economic growth, coupled with widespread crime and corruption, grinding poverty, gross inequality and intractable unemployment that have earned our nation a dishonourable place on many global indices”.
But we have an option — either to keep our eyes dimmed, or to turn them on and create a new vision through a new lens of prosperity that our nation’s people can feel part of and own it.
As Mabizela said: “We find ourselves at a tipping point; we are on the edge of a precipice. How we navigate our way out of the current situation will significantly shape the kind of a society that we will become.”
The call for a national dialogue is precisely to afford all South Africans an opportunity to again pursue the aspirations of all, including the fallen freedom fighters, of a prosperous country awash with equal opportunities for all its people. It is a call for the nation to re-envision a better future than what it has experienced lately. That vision cannot be attained unless “the cross-section of South African society: political bodies, civil society movements, children’s and youth organisations, organisations of disabled compatriots, religious or interfaith sector, communities, business organisations and owners of capital, farmers and farm workers, unions and representatives of the unemployed, scholars, women’s organisations, sporting organisations, representatives of education institutions, think-tanks, professional bodies, grassroots formations, traditional leadership, community-based organisations, rural formations and other interest groups” participate as equal partners in the process.
The SDG, whose membership straddles the fields of academia, think-tanks and professional bodies, calls upon everyone to identify a mechanism to contribute to the re-imagining of our beautiful country. It is these members’ knowledge, technical skills and experiences that the country yearns to use in large numbers as it seeks to secure a better future for many generations to come.
Our country has over many years invested in educating its young citizens. It does this because education is the foundation of any functioning society. Education prepares its young to contribute with acquired tools in community development through various means. Education also schools them to contribute economically and participate, directly and indirectly, in advancing the nation’s political and social systems.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has previously said: “Investments in human capital can be a source of resilience over the long term.”
Education, appropriately structured and contextualised, is pivotal in steering society toward a path of economic development, peace, and stability. Thus, investing in education goes beyond individual benefits. Evidence relating to South Africa’s contribution to knowledge generation and its global benefits is strewn across many scientific fields including commercial innovations and inventions. South Africa’s influence in continental and global political arenas has cemented the nation’s role in efforts to ensure enduring world peace. It has, in the process, paid a price through the occasional loss of its deployed peacekeepers.
The world we are experiencing is complex. It is therefore imperative that professionals and intellectuals deliberately play a pivotal role in driving innovative thinking for the purpose of nation building. The times we live in demand that young people keep pushing boundaries, challenging norms and creating new ideas that add value to our society. In our context this should be synonymous with progress, development and growth. It should be about reimagining what is possible and translating that vision into reality. Their exposure to the external world must reap benefits for their country.
Therefore, as Mabizela concluded, professionals and intellectuals, with their specialised knowledge and skills, are uniquely positioned to be the torchbearers of innovation for nation building. They are individuals who have dedicated themselves to occupational activities, often driven by a passion to make a difference in their fields. But being a professional is more than just a career choice; it comes with a set of obligations that extend beyond individual success.
We collectively need to overcome the trap that Plato articulates in his Allegory of the Cave. In the allegory, Socrates was in conversation with Plato’s brother, Glaukon, explaining that “we all resemble captives who are chained deep within a cave, who do not yet realise that there is more to reality than the shadows they see”. Simplified, the discussion between Socrates and Glaukon centred on a person’s ability to quickly adjust to fast-changing conditions with little time available, just like an eye that is rapidly exposed to bright light or immediate darkness. Our country has, over the past 15 years, been rapidly exposed to untold suffering and many social ills that society’s trust in the government and the political system is gapingly astounding.
Socrates concludes his discussion with Glaukon by saying: “What our message now signifies is that the ability and means of learning is already present in the soul. As the eye could not turn from darkness to light unless the whole body moved (unchained), so it is that the mind can only turn around from the world of becoming to that of being by a movement of the whole soul. Therefore, of this matter itself, there must be a craft of some kind, which would be a most efficient and effective means of transforming the soul. It would not be an art that gives the soul vision, but a craft at labour under the assumption that the soul has its own innate vision but does not apply it properly. There must be some kind of means for bringing this about.”
In his conscience-captivating novel, No Longer At Ease, Chinua Achebe presents a classical dilemma faced by a highly educated young man who wrestles a personal and moral struggle amid a turbulent social conflict. It is the story akin to what many individuals face in our society — educated by their society and later finding themselves as part of the privileged whose survival is frequently tempted by crass materiality. It is a culture that threatens to devour the conscience of our future leaders who occupy today’s youth ranks. Tackling the threat requires a herculean effort, anchored in a positive value system that current and future generations should aspire to live by.
The SDG believes it is possible that our nation can turn around from potentially becoming a dysfunctional nation to being a prosperous nation as previously envisioned. It would not be the vision alone that births a society we yearn for, but the associated action programme which will make that vision meaningful. The combined actions by the government and society will ensure that this nation’s eyes quickly adapt to the bright light we were losing hope on.
As the foundations emphasised, “The process will engage widely with the cross-section of South African society: … scholars, representatives of education institutions, think-tanks, professional bodies … It will reach as many sectors of our society as possible.”
The Strategic Dialogue Group wishes to fortify this call by the foundations for a national dialogue. The SDG sees it as imperative for all professionals, public intellectuals and their related organisations to ensure that they contribute to the process. This is a contribution that cannot be outsourced even to the highest bidder. It is a call to national duty. That is the reason the SDG is committed to seeing the initiative succeed.
Percy Mahlathi is the national secretary of the Strategic Dialogue Group, which promotes good governance and democratic values in South Africa. It was formed by activists and leaders involved in the struggle for liberation in higher education institutions.