Honour Madiba by advancing socio-economic transformation

DURING his inspiring maiden State of the Nation Address (Sona), President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa correctly observed that “we remain a highly unequal society, in which poverty and prosperity are still defined by race and gender”.

This was a very commendable and bold statement coming from Ramaphosa, given his standing and position in society, which signals a “new dawn” in tackling the serious challenges faced by our country and its people, with poverty, inequality and unemployment still at unacceptable levels.

His bold statement also affirmed the governing party’s commitment to advancing a more radical socio-economic transformation agenda, informed by resolutions taken at the watershed 54th national conference at Nasrec in December.

Interestingly, this “new dawn” and refreshing leadership emerge at a time we are celebrating Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday and are looking to honour and uphold his great legacy as part of a generation of leaders that ushered us into the democratic era.

One of the main areas of contention that we must consider is the socio-economic impact on contemporary South Africa, of the compromises that were reached in order to bring us to the post1994 democratic dispensation. In his seminal work, A History of Inequality in South Africa: 16522002, recently deceased academic and renowned progressive political economist Professor Sampie Terreblanche argues: “A momentous political transformation should be urgently complemented by an equally momentous socio-economic transformation in order to deracialise the economy, get rid of the ugly remnants of racial capitalism, and end poverty and destitution.”

An objective analysis of the socio-economic situation in contemporary South Africa leads one to conclude that this is one of the things that we have not managed to achieve in this new period, despite the many advances we can be proud of. Since 1994, we find ourselves faced with the problem of a new political system which to a large extent still maintains the old economic order.

Terreblanche further posits that in order to bring about this socio-economic transformation, white South Africans (corporately) should acknowledge that they were beneficiaries of colonial segregation as well as apartheid and as a result they should be prepared to make the necessary conciliatory and restitutional sacrifices that will redress past imbalances and help us build the united, non-racial, non-sexist, prosperous South Africa that Mandela gave his life to creating.

He further argues that the democratic compromises that ushered us into the post-1994 era fundamentally consisted of a pact between the new political elite and the old corporate order, which in effect led to the increased marginalisation and pauperisation of the impoverished black majority.

His solution is that we should launch new and radical economic policies whose primary aim will be to redress the hundreds of years of racial oppression that have led to the subjugation of the black majority. It is in line with this reasoning that at its 54th national conference, the ANC resolved to commit itself to “fundamental and radical socio-economic transformation of society to create a better life for all South Africans”.

This is a renewed commitment to fundamentally, systemically and structurally transform the economy of South Africa so that it loses its colonial era racial and gender composition of ownership and management of our economy.

Radical socio-economic transformation is an existential necessity for us as a people if we are to ever uphold and honour Nelson Mandela’s nation building legacy.

Radical socio-economic transformation is about economic inclusiveness, historical redress, redistribution (income, wealth and asset redistribution).

It is not a zero-sum game where we have to choose between the interests of business as opposed to the interests of the rest of society or between those of blacks and whites. It consists of a social compact, as stated by Ramaphosa in his Sona, between the various stakeholders and interest groups within society in order to build a new economic order that will offer opportunity for advancement and upward mobility to all, and not just an elite few.

In his well-known speech, The Historical Injustice, delivered in Ottawa, Canada in 1978, former president Thabo Mbeki highlights this fact.

It is not that we are trying to posit black capitalism as the antithesis to white capitalism, as neither of these have any redeeming features. Rather, we want to break the power of monopoly over all sectors of our economy, with highly concentrated ownership patterns where a few large firms (mainly whiteowned and controlled for historically obvious reasons) control entire value chains and leave no room for small businesses to be able to enter and compete.

This of course stifles innovation and keeps our economy from growing, diversifying and transforming. Through radical socio-economic transformation we want to use the state as a vehicle to advance the National Democratic Revolution and build the South Africa that Mandela and his generation gallantly fought for. It is about bringing about the quickest and most fundamental social and economic change so that we can indeed become a “Rainbow Nation” on “whom the sun never sets” to use a phrase from Mandela’s 1994 inauguration speech.

We want to break the power of monopoly over all sectors