Trevor Manuel’s path to build SA afresh is clear

FROM February 27 to March 1 the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs hosted an “Expert Group Meeting on Eradicating Rural Poverty to Implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The session made me think about South Africa’s problems and whether it is blighted by naive exceptionalism or contextual uniqueness, and what we should do about it.

Former finance minister Trevor Manuel, at the Zondo Commission on Friday, made it clear that it is those without voice and visibility who suffer the consequences of corruption, of deprivation of services and of poverty, and that when there are no consequences for perpetrators, the democratic project counts for nothing.

The notion of infatuation with the exceptionalism of South Africa has been discussed by many a scholar and opinion writers.

Former president Nelson Mandela’s rendition makes a clear distinction between exceptionalism and the burden of responsibility and trust because of the context and uniqueness of circumstance.

He articulated this when he launched results of Census 1996 in October 1998: “The leaders of this country, when they go abroad, are fêted right and left… I want you to keep that in mind, to respond to the call for unity and for reconciliation, and not to behave in a way which let down those who trust us, inside and outside the country.”

Of course, 22 years later we behaved in a way that let down those who trusted us, inside and outside the country. Hence the relevance of exceptionalism or contextual uniqueness.

As regards corruption and state capture, a landmark case on the Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme presided over by Chief Justice Lehohla in September 2002 in Lesotho saw the extent of state capture unravel globally.

Masupha Sole, already jailed for 18 years, was accompanied by a judgment against, among others, Acres of Canada.

Welcoming the judgment, Probe International of Canada said: “Lesotho has shown that it takes corruption seriously by convicting its own corrupt officials and corrupt briber… if Western governments don’t get tough, we in the West will be seen as hypocrites.”

The difference with South Africa in the case of systematic state capture and repurposing government, though, is this – someone has yet to be prosecuted and convicted. Danger is lurking.

Seventeen years later, Lesotho is not only back in the throes of corruption, it is in a political roulette. Countries need to be aware that state capture and corruption are always lurking. So it is not about beating our breasts and declaring that it should not come again or it will not come again.

It is, possibly, what Deputy Chief Justice Zondo did for us in giving Manuel the opportunity to say what went wrong and what advice he brings to the table as a seasoned technocratic politician.

Manuel advised that the country must draw from the experiences of retired expertise, which South Africa rarely uses. It’s in rebuilding the institutions and breathing life into them as living organisms whose health has to be ruthlessly examined all the time. It’s about an enduring covenant premised on profundity of oath of office. It is about accountability, active citizenry and urgent consequence execution.

All of these brought together bring us hope that poverty, inequality and unemployment can be defeated.

For the poor, the road to this vision looks far away considering the recent decade, after 25 years of liberation from apartheid, has been wasted and with no one behind bars.

Dr Pali Lehohla is the former Statistician-General of South Africa and former head of Statistics South Africa.