Change-makers, learn from history
In his article “Workplace change a social imperative ”(Ja nuary 6 2017), Professor William Gumede correctly pinpoints deteriorating relationships in the workplace as one the key issues in South Africa’s socioeconomic decline.
In an earlier piece, “We need a new consensus on SA’s economy” (July 22 2016), he traced this socioeconomic decline from about 2008, when “poor management of public finances and delays in reforms ... plunged the economy into recession”.
In the 1994 elections, a substantial majority agreed to the implementation of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). It was a new departure, engaging all the country’s rich resources, especially the full spectrum of its multifaceted population, to remould society post-apartheid along with the economy. Its means would be a people-driven, inclusive, steady advance in productive capacity and therefore the people’s welfare.
But it was never truly implemented. In 1997 it was replaced by the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (Gear) policy, seeking to benefit the people by neoliberal trickle-down processes. Public participation and approval were not sought. The RDP slowed as the inev- itable consequences of Gear became dominant. Nelson Mandela’s guidance, in word and gesture, to engage the white minority, where the major skills base resided, was also eroded. Soon the issue of race re-entered the national discourse.
Historically, the RDP contains every one of Gumede’s remedies. Too little research has been done into the history of its effects in the first decade of the democratic era.
The country of great promise and basis of hope for a better future, which riveted the world in a time of declining global leadership, has become just another struggling and corrupt African state battling to keep its international economic rating above junk status. This makes attempts at regaining some of the momentum of 23 years ago that much harder.
Those who fail to learn from history, especially such recent history, are doomed to repeat it. With the crisis in the ruling ANC generating some hope for internal renewal, plus the success of the opposition and its growing influence, clear and valid analysis is needed to guide the present forces for change. In this, a fearless, independent press and engaged academia — especially in the fields of governance and political analysis — can, as always, play a vital role.