Modise honoured by reduction in the ‘toy effect’
PRAVIN Gordhan, during one of his moments of great anguish over our degenerating and maligned political edifice of state capture said: “(Eskom is) far too important an entity to become a personal toy for a few individuals.”
The passing on of ambassador Billy Modise marks the passing of an era. It is the demise of a generation that committed to paying the price for our freedom based on the true belief that such freedom and its consolidation was not going to be turned into a toy.
It is now six years since the centenary celebrations of the ANC.
It was at the 52nd Conference of the ANC held in Polokwane that the then-president of the ANC asked a pertinent question about whether the ANC “would have the will and capacity to lead our country and people over the next five years in a manner that will enable the nation to celebrate our centenary together in 2012, paying heartfelt tribute to our movement:
“For what it has and would have done to sacrifice everything for our liberation, and using that freedom to lead the national offensive to accelerate the advance towards the creation of a South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it?”
The centenary celebrations were to mark the passing of an era whereby many a stalwart would be at a minimum 70 years old, many more would be octogenarians, while others would be a few years shy of being centenarians.
It’s no secret that we have seen many depart this earth at that very ripe age. Blessed have we been not to lose out on leadership when it was needed the most.
This generation of a people steeped in hope demonstrated how hope can even in adversity postpone death. But sadly, as we know today, many of those who departed did so with profound disappointment and concerns for the country, because of the grip of decadence at the centre and helm of our politics and, as a consequence, our comatose economy and deprecated social fabric. It is that moment of the passing of a generation that institutions face the highest risk – periods of transition pose risks.
Then president Thabo Mbeki was drawing the party to this very important challenge. He encouraged and extolled delegates and members to focus their attention on this ominous task.
At Polokwane and in his report Mbeki provided a factual scorecard on the performance of the economy which, among others, significantly reduced the ratio of government debt to gross domestic product, including appreciating, albeit small, the 0.6 surplus.
Positive
All these positive economic indicators generated conditions for increased social spending. The platform for policy choices was certainly set. There was a spoiler though – the financial crisis of 2008.
While this remains true and had a significant impact on the economic course of South Africa, the country showed resilience towards it and should have recovered. Now we know, based on the scale of political indiscretions, that the economic malaise we face today was by choice.
Ambassador Billy Modise hosted a delegation that I led from Statistics South Africa in Canada in March 1999.
Our mission was a study tour to Statistics Canada from whence many an agreement was signed for collaboration. It was the insights that Ambassador Modise shared with us on statistics matters in Canada that set the tone for our engagements with Statistics Canada.
What was most interesting were his views, which were corroborated by the staff at Statistics Canada, on Quebec. As a federation, but with statistics as a national function, Quebec represented an outlier. Quebec in Canada is what Queensland is to Australia. A national function contested by a provincial equivalent can be more than an irritation as it may wish to impose its own affairs when matters of national interest are at stake.
Ambassador Modise’s sharp intellect was well attuned to the statistical politics of Canada. In South Africa, as we inched to the settlement, the political economy of statistics, while not discussed at Codesa, were being heatedly discussed, especially in the context of the planned-for census of 1995, among technocrats.
I had the unpleasant burden of having to spearhead the debates from 1992 onwards. In our corner, from Bophuthatswana, we had Professor Kahimbaara, who was my technical adviser, and Professor Mannie Geyer from Potchefstroom University. Towards the end of 1993 we were joined by the current statistician-general, Risenga Maluleke, from Gyani.
Just before the 1994 elections, Professor Job Mokgoro, the current premier of the North West, was deployed to the homeland as an administrator, and he joined the discourse on statistics. Dr Benni Mokaba, Mr Howard Gabriels and Dr Tanya Lamola weighed-in to the shaping of statistics in South Africa. While Dr Andries du Toit, the then head of Statistics South Africa, and I were one on statistics as a national function, we differed fundamentally on how it would function.
He preferred a weak post-box-like statistical infrastructure across the country. He preferred this condition as it would retain the status quo – a white office at head office and blacks in the weakened regional structure.
Dr Mark Orkin, later appointed as the head of the Central Statistical Services, replaced Du Toit. He understood the position I took on the matter and together with the strong technical alliance we were able to lay the foundations for a formidable national statistics office and a strong national statistics system.
Ambassador Billy Modise’s insights reinforced our resolve for a national competency for statistics and when the Statistics Act was adopted it reflected his insights. In this insignificant way, we have possibly honoured him and reduced the “toy thing effect” on our democracy.