Thirty years on, SA is not the basket case some predicted

THIS month South Africa celebrates 30 years of democracy. Those who were there at its birth would never have known how she would turn out; like any 30-year-old when one looks back, there have been disappointments and triumphs of our democratic order.

The year before common sense and democracy won out, South Africa stood at the precipice following the assassination of SACP leader Chris Hani, an act which came close to plunging us into a civil war.

This is exactly what opponents of democracy wanted: chaos and anarchy.

Thirty years later, those who can’t live with the consequences of democracy are again threatening chaos and anarchy just like the rightwingers in 1994.

The civil war and subsequent genocide in Rwanda at around the same time that the New South Africa was birthed, gives context to the (now) much-maligned “negotiated settlement” which made all sorts of concessions to opponents of democracy.

Thirty years later, those concessions have for the most part maintained the peace but, some would say, also entrenched the status quo such that South Africa has the unenviable title of being, “the most unequal society” in the world.

Small pockets of society have cashed the dividends of democracy while the governing ANC has boasted about handouts to the likes of “Tintswalo”.

For the first time in 30 years, the ANC’s grasp on the reins of power is not guaranteed when voters cast their ballots on May 29. Several polls predict no outright winner.

The ANC has a record in government. It will use that record to make the case for why it should be returned to power. Opposition parties will also use that record to make the case for why the ANC should be booted.

Many fellow Africans will be looking at our elections with, perhaps, a sense of envy. Political opponents have not been jailed and opposition parties have equal access to popular media.

As we mark 30 years of democracy this month, being overly critical of the ANC government is not wrong, but we should also acknowledge that South Africa is not the basket case many would have predicted in 1994.