Revisiting vision for future of SA

TWENTY-SEVEN years ago, as South Africa stood on the brink of political transformation, I was asked to pen my vision for a democratic future.

I had been a participant in the liberation Struggle for four decades and had 15 years of experience in governance.

I looked to the future with a combination of hope and trepidation.

I knew that democracy was inevitable; that we were moving inexorably forward to the long-awaited moment of change.

But I also knew there were dangers inherent in the journey ahead.

Having fought so long against the waves of injustice, we could not simply drift on this new tide to an inevitable shore.

In a book titled South Africa: My Vision of the Future, I wrote: “We must be prepared now to work at how we will soon create and maintain good government…

“We run the risk of the country falling prey to ruthless manoeuvring that will be the downfall of us all… No government in a post-apartheid South Africa should be placed in a position where it can, through mismanagement and uncompromising ideological dogma, create a situation in which growing and grinding poverty destroys the foundations on which we must build.

“Poverty is the enemy of democracy; poverty is more often than not a recipe for revolution.”

When I look back now on the warnings I sounded in 1990, it pains me to know that we walked headlong into some of those very dangers.

Far from being turned into wealth-creators, the poor have been pressed down into an endless cycle of poverty and dependence.

Government’s mismanagement of the economy has created the recipe for revolution.

In May 1989, Ken Owen, then-editor of Business Day, wrote that the alternative to apartheid did not lie in transferring power, or even in sharing power, but in taming it.

“To tame power,” he said, “it is necessary to disperse it as widely as possible.”

Tragically, as we hammered out the form of state and the details of government, the ruling party’s fervour for centralising power won against Inkatha’s proposal of federalism and empowered local governance. Consequently, power accumulated in the hands of the few, at the top.

Corruption quickly found a foothold, birthing the ubiquitous jobs-for-pals and tenderpreneurs.

More than two decades down the line, South Africa is failing to prioritise the two things that could end poverty: education and empowerment; and is focussed instead on keeping the few at the top in extravagant luxury. How do we reverse the damage to our economic growth, social cohesion and national psyche?

First and foremost, by reviving education as a tool of liberation.

Throughout our long Struggle I encouraged South Africans to revere learning and to consider the pursuit of education an expression of the will to thrive in a democracy.

The children who filled our classrooms before 1994 were preparing to become active participants and competent citizens in a democratic South Africa. They were preparing to administer a new government.

What is the driving force behind education today?

Is it motivated by desperation to survive in a failing economy, where millions remain unemployed?

Or is it still seen as preparation to become one of the influencers of change, a protagonist in the future development of South Africa?

In 1990, I wrote: “Our youth are, for the most part, angry and impatient. They want freedom and they want it now.”

I could say the same about 2017.

Our youth are angry and impatient. They want economic empowerment, and they want it now.

The promises of democracy were not fulfilled when it comes to economic empowerment.

Sadly, this has driven a wedge between our people – between the haves and the have-nots – that runs as deep as the historic divide of race.

Everywhere there are talk shops and conferences to discuss our differences.

We have learnt to talk about problems, but not how to talk in a way that solves them.

We need debate and dialogue, but these must be tempered with compassion and focussed on reconciliation.

Rather than aiming to highlight our differences, our goal should be to better understand one another for the sake of valuing our shared humanity.

All too often, when a racial incident occurs or tax money is wasted, or someone dies because they were turned away from hospital, our knee-jerk reaction is hate, disgust and anger.

But we move quickly from one moral outrage to another, feeding social tension, without asking how we can fix what is wrong.

How can we make a difference?

Not by shaming whoever is in the wrong, but by trying to understand, educate and evolve.

Twenty-seven years ago we knew that South Africa was moving towards reconciliation and nation-building because the social signs were there.

As I wrote: “White extremists and black extremists are being shunted into the obscurity they deserve, and what better sign can there be?”

By that same measure, South Africa seems to be moving into dangerous territory, for the social signs indicate that extremists (racists, political militarists, and those who sow division) are being pushed into the limelight. Let us take a lesson from the past.

The liberation Struggle taught us that the poor can resolutely overcome injustice without having to indulge in despair and destruction.

But as the Struggle came to an end, something shifted.

I tried to pinpoint what it was when I wrote: “There was an element of forgiveness and compromise inherent in the political rationales of previous generations of activists that is rapidly becoming extinct within the breasts of today’s young radicals. Some have already lost these precious human qualities.”

It is not that today’s radicals are breaking what they did not build, but that they are not building at all. If we are not building and not growing, we have no future.

My vision for the future of South Africa remains the same now as it was in 1990.

It is one of unqualified growth in human, spiritual, political and economic terms. To achieve that, we must become builders, building relationship, integrity, perseverance, trust, responsibility and reconciliation.

That is my prayer for my country.