The problem with the African National Congress is that it is in government without economic muscles. And that, in essence, is merely being in office, not in power.
Even when we talk about an ANC elite, we're in essence talking about a tiny enclave: just one Patrice Motsepe here, one Tokyo Sexwale there. The vast majority of the membership of the ANC is in poverty. Never mind the BMWs and the Mercedes Benzes. It's just bling-bling.
Joe Slovo, the late secretary-general of the South African Communist Party (SACP), explained this dilemma better when, in the early 1990s, he made references to "the historical truism that no ruling class ever gives up all its power voluntarily".
Fifteen years after Nelson Mandela told the nation and the world that "the time for the healing of the wounds has come", South Africa of today is sadly still not so different from the South Africa of the old days. Sometimes it even feels like we're on a reverse gear.
Blacks and whites are still fearful of each other, often going to great lengths to preserve racial rivalries of the past. We like to pretend to outsiders that we are a rainbow nation, "united in diversity", but between the colours of this rainbow rest deep racial disharmony.
Many studies have come to the same conclusion about the make-up of the South African economy: in its entirety, it is still as white-dominated as it was before 1994, and whites are still as privileged - and in some instances even more privileged now than under apartheid.
The ANC's much-criticised economic policies of Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment have failed to hasten the much-fancied redistribution of the country’s wealth. And, ironically, the main critics of these policies happen to be their beneficiaries - the white business establishment and their black elite friends.
Government, even with the best of intentions, is in no position to create genuine employment. But business won't create jobs until the ANC agrees to partner with them in the recreation of a new apartheid, a survival-of-the-fittest society in which money-making and wealth-accumulation precede life, freedom and liberty.
Perhaps the former liberation movements made too many concessions at the Congress for Democracy in South Africa (Codesa). They appear to have agreed to leave the apartheid business machinery intact - all this in favour of a speedy and peaceful transition to democracy.
Many beneficiaries of the apartheid regime profess hard work and honesty in public platforms but have never practically embraced any of those ideals in their own lives. They inherit dirty money and want to be protectionist about it.
We need another Codesa, this time to discuss and agree on a new and viable economic model for post-apartheid South Africa. We can't (or shouldn't) carry on pretending as though democracy as we have it is good for everyone. And we should desist from populist rhetoric such as the raging debate on nationalisation of mines.
Slovo spoke about the anti-apartheid movement's "long-term liberation objectives", and these objectives have, to a large extend, been forsaken in the last 15 years in favour of a corrosive environment in which big business and public office bearers agree to engage in "quiet diplomacy" of some sort.
"We inject large amounts into your election campaign and you leave us alone thereafter" seems to be the agreement. And the poor are not sitting and watching. The so-called service delivery protests are a microcosm of what could happen later if the powers-that-be have the capacity to eradicate poverty but choose to procrastinate.
We need a new Codesa to focus on our post-apartheid economic machinery; and we shouldn't wait long. We need genuine transfer of power, not just pomp and ceremony - not just helicopters flying over the Union Buildings and eloquent speeches about freedom.
Mohandas Gandhi once posed a pertinent question: "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?"
Get published on MyNews24 by sending your letter, story or column to us.
Send us your news photos
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
- News24
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.