Alliance did make mistake

DURING his rather uninspiring state of nation address (Sona), President Jacob Zuma mentioned one grain of truth: the acknowledgement that “they”, meaning the ANC and its allies, had “made a mistake in the past”. Indeed the president is very correct.

The ANC and its allies made a grave error of judgment when they believed that their counterparts at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa) talks negotiated in good faith and in the best interests of all South Africans.

In fact, the sole interest of the National Party and its allies during those negotiations allegedly was to convince the ANC to accept a new version of apartheid infused with some democratic principles.

Let’s call it a “democratic apartheid”, whose aim was to safeguard the ill-gotten apartheid gains and business interests of the white minority.

The National Party was allegedly never, even remotely, interested in economic democracy for all South Africans. I define economic democracy as The Community Innovators Lab did – a system of governance that puts capital and resources under democratic control and ownership.

If the ANC and its allies would accept political power without economic power, keep the majority of black people in the sub-standard townships and rural spaces, provide the majority of black children with inferior quality education, abandon the Freedom Charter, keep as many black people as possible landless and accept apartheid spatial design, all would be well.

It is better this late than never for the president to realise that the ANC and its allies made a mistake in agreeing to the “for-profit democracy for whites only” that we now have.

If the president is truly and fully committed to the letter and spirit of his words, to address the land question and the economic democracy, then we would like to see it in action.

Mpumelelo Ncwadi, founding director, Indwe Trust