All falls down in a failed state
FAILED states are characterised by a neglect of their citizenry. The neglect of citizens can accordingly either occur domestically or from an outward perspective in relation to the international system of states.
Taking care of citizen demands, concerns, and expectations is the raison d'être of the modern state, and national security is invariably ranked first among priorities while the rest of the primacies follow.
Furthermore, while ensuring national security by the state might seem like a no brainer, this fundamental building block of the modern state can easily suffer abandonment when people are unable to fathom out what violation of their private space and sanctuary looks like.
South Africa represents a failed state of a special type due to the fact that the neglect of the majority of citizens is disguised by the presence of an advanced modern physical infrastructure when compared with other developing countries.
South Africa's failure, moreover, is also relative because in 1994 when the ANC government assumed power the country was already much better off in terms of the advancement and sophistication of its economy, physical infrastructure, and banking system, when compared to countries in the region.
The facade and allure of an advanced physical infrastructure and economic system can easily conceal far deeper and intangible markers of underdevelopment and regression in people's well-being, spirit and aspirations as long as the economy continues to function.
South Africa is indeed in this conundrum of failure of a special type, a hollow and spiritless black majority that is unable to fulfil its human potential and rise to the greatest heights of being fully human and attain collective self-actualisation. And this is ironically happening while the president and public servants are black, the supermarket shelves are full, traffic lights are working, petrol gets delivered at service stations, and children go to school.
Furthermore, the rituals of modern democracy such as elections are performed with ease and seamlessness at regular intervals, and so are the census, payments of rates and taxes, and renewal of vehicle licences and related permits.
The social contract between the citizens and the state is, however, not honoured. And this is all before we can talk about material indicators of security, crime, poverty, unemployment and inequality.
These contradictions are distinctively South African and will remain extant for an extended period, as long as the country continues to function for a substantial section of society. It is difficult to determine if the country will ever reach a stage where the salaries of the police, teachers, nurses and the military are all not paid simultaneously.
But the latter prospect might not be far away if the collapse of the South African Airways, Post Office and Denel, among the few state enterprises is anything to go by. Only time will tell if wholesale total collapse of state institutions is possible. For now, the dysfunction and collapse is still limited to a few state agencies just as the July 2021 riots were restricted to Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
The debate about what constitutes a failed state can be a matter of perspective. The subjective nature of the question is determined largely by people's economic positioning and lived experiences.
Several commentators have pointed at South Africa's gravitation towards a failed state. Following the 2022 Budget speech in February, the then director general of the National Treasury, Dondo Mogajane, was quoted urging public servants to pay attention to their attitudes towards people they serve by creating access and a conducive environment and making a change in their lives; “if that's not going to be a motivating factor, we can start calling South Africa a failing state because the things that define a failing state are beginning to show, where we don't care about the poor and improving their lives”.
Meanwhile the CEO of Stillwater Mining, Neal Froneman, was quoted as saying: “My view is now that we are practically a failed state. It starts with inequality and poverty. This is a lack of leadership.
“This is a lack of people at the highest levels taking proper action against lawlessness, and it filters all the way down through the system. But, ultimately, because there is no economic growth, people are poor, people are angry, and, of course, there is a lack of capacity to deliver services.”
From the vantage point of the poor majority South Africa is a failed state. A different type of a failed state can arise when the state or any other entity is allowed to kill hope, trust, vitality, and optimism amongst the majority of citizens and particularly the youth.
What becomes of a society that fails to deliver political goods such as security and economic well-being for the majority of its citizenry? Outside of the material aspects of existence, intangible public goods such as hope, happiness, and optimism spell out the very essence of a functioning modern state and once people have written off the politicians, political parties, and government, the state is as good as having failed.
For much of the post-apartheid period, say at least the first 15 years of democracy, the country seemed to be functioning.
There was some semblance of progress. Transformation seemed to register across public entities with the face of government becoming more and more black. It took reaction from below among the poor when in 2008 violence against foreign nationals broke out around Gauteng. It was the poor black South Africans who first felt pressures brought by illegal immigration and limited resources.
It was to take another decade for the rest of society to realise that the South African landscape had changed, many figures on crime, unemployment, poverty, and inequality, continued to reveal a declining economy and well-being amongst the citizenry.
From ailing road and rail infrastructure to poor services at hospitals and unflattering state of education, it took time for everything else to come to the surface.
As the physical infrastructure deteriorates and no new additions are made, the lack of basic services and increasing levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment all intersect to form an unprecedented negative configuration of lack and hopelessness.