Nuruddin Farah, one of the extraordinary novelists of our times, succinctly captured — in his novel entitled Secrets — the beginnings of Somalia’s civil war. Kalaman, the protagonist, relates what he was going through as the tragedy unfolded: “I sat in the car. I was a storm-beaten, lonely man. I was sad. I was mournful. I grieved for my country.”
The various incidents challenging South Africa beg a fundamental question: where is South Africa going? Some South Africans come across as storm-beaten, sad and mournful. There might be some that are even grieving for our country. To answer the question posed above, another important question should be answered: where is South Africa coming from? The answer to this question might change the minds and hearts of those that are sad, mournful and grieving — given the obtaining balance of evidence, are there sufficient grounds for sadness, mourning and grief for our South Africa? It appears that the correct answer is a resounding NO.
In her latest book, Laying Ghosts to Rest, Mamphela Ramphele takes us through a journey of where South Africa was compared to where it is today. She satisfactorily answers the question of where SA comes from. There are many others who have also tackled this important question, presumably having an obvious answer, of where we come from as a nation. Ramphele contends that “analysts of our transition to democracy are inclined to either romanticise what has been accomplished thus far or be overly critical of the persistent gaps between the idealism of the envisaged transformation process and the socio-economic realities of citizens’ everyday lives. Both sides are apt to underestimate the complex processes involved in managing the urgent multiple challenges that had to be addressed to secure a successful transition and lay the foundation for orderly transformation”. Ramphele argues that “a successfully transformed South Africa would be characterised by the antithesis of all that was bad about the apartheid system”.
It is taken for granted that we come from an ugly past, a legacy that makes the transformation process even more complex. Part of the challenge is that the political settlement that brought about a new South Africa — though seemingly the ideal one at the time of the conclusion of negotiations — might be posing or have posed constraints on what could have been a speedy socio-economic transformation in a post-apartheid South Africa. It is also argued that there were or there are also constraints imposed by external factors. Although we should be grateful for the relatively peaceful transition to democracy, some clarity on the details of the negotiated political settlement might be helpful. At face-value, it is hard to understand why certain seemingly obvious social changes have not taken place.
Take, for instance, one of the most important matters: the land question — could it be that the process has been this disappointing because of the nature and content of the negotiated political settlement? There are a number of countries, for example Rwanda, that come from a past that is uglier than ours but have addressed or are addressing the critical socio-economic transformation challenges speedier than South Africa. It is perhaps in this context that Xolela Mangcu — in his latest book entitled The Democratic Moment, opines that “the question at the end of the day is whether the new leadership under Jacob Zuma has the emotional temperament, the ethical-moral commitment, the political willingness and the institutional resources needed to engage with communities in the resolution of problems … ”. Put differently, why are we as South Africa performing poorer than we should in our robust transformation project.
The answer to the question of where SA is going is probably better conceptualised within the framework of the so-called “developmental state”. In a journal paper on policy-making in South Africa, published in 2008, I define a developmental state as a state “that is active in pursuing its agenda, working with social partners, and has the capacity and is appropriately organised for its predetermined developmental objectives”. South Africa has surprised many scholars in that it is the only state that has publicly declared its ambition to be a developmental state. Among the main attributes of developmental states is the notion of “embedded-autonomy”, a term coined by Peter Evans, a leading scholar on developmental states. In a nutshell, what Evans is talking about is that a developmental state is “embedded” or connected to the society it serves and at the same time it has some distance from vested interests. Other main attributes of a developmental state include (1) a state that is vigorously pursuing/prioritising economic growth, like the East Asian economies did (2) there is the so-called a “developmental elite” (3) recruitment to the public sector is merit-based (4) public servants are insulated from political interferences and/or bureaucrats should be governed by political “neutrality”, and so on.
In an ongoing undertaking aimed at further unpacking human poverty and other related dynamics in a post-apartheid South Africa, data suggests that SA is a developmental state in the making. This turns on its head a conclusion — that SA was indeed a developmental state, albeit a weak one — I reached in a recent conference paper. Clearly, we are not yet there and we have some mileage to traverse! The findings of the ongoing research on human poverty and related factors in SA indicate some steady progress in a number of critical areas. As an example, the trend of the Human Development Index (HDI) for SA has generally been rising; in 1980 it was at 0.65, it rose to 0.68 in 2007 and there is a small further improvement to 0.69 in 2008 — the HDI combines statistics on life expectancy, education and income while the Human Poverty Index (HPI) is an attempt to bring together in a composite index the different features of deprivation in the quality of life to arrive at an aggregate judgment on the extent of poverty in a particular case. In addition, there is the Gender-related Human Development Index (GDI) which reflects differences in HDI for women compared to men: SA has one of the highest GDIs in the world, at 99.84.
Overall, the reason I argue that SA is a developmental state in the making is because blacks are still the most affected by human poverty and they have lower human development: the black population group has the lowest HDI (0.63), compared to that of whites (0.91). Of note is also that whites and Indians have better human development indices than the average for the richest 20% of all South Africans, which suggests that there are additional factors that determine inter-racial differences in human development (and this is captured in lower life-expectancy rates for non-white population groups). In terms of provinces, Gauteng has the highest average HDI (0.81) while KwaZulu-Natal has the lowest HDI (0.60).
There are a number of technical research issues that are under consideration. Many assumptions are made in estimations on these kinds of matters and data used and calculations have to pass some statistical tests, and one has to take into account opinions of experts in these issues. In essence, it is hard to argue that SA is a developmental state already given the inequalities shown by disaggregated HDIs and HPIs, let alone our Gini coefficient (at about 0.70), making SA the most unequal society in the world. It could, however, be argued that SA appears to be in the correct direction towards a fully-fledged democratic developmental state — this is where perhaps SA is going.
As Ramphele argues: “A successfully transformed South Africa would be characterised by the antithesis of all that was bad about the apartheid system … transformation of [that] magnitude is complex”. It might be necessary to engage openly about our past, the negotiated political settlement, the present and the future we aim for as a nation. An elder and astute character in Farah’s Secrets has some words of wisdom that require some attention. Addressing Kalaman and his mother, Damac, an elder — Nonno — states that “what sets humans apart from other animals is not the generic ability to speak, or that we are capable of thinking in complicated mathematical equations, no. It is in the human’s obedience to a set of tenets governing an overall behaviour, taboo tenets that are observed, because they affect the community’s life at large. I cannot imagine a world without taboos, a culture without its notion of right and wrong. Honours are maintained, pledges kept, gods worshipped. It is anathema to imagine a world in which there are no secrets. Secrets have a life energy, they keep us alive”.
Nonno is probably right. However in the context of societal-wide transformation, it might help not to be secretive about what could be constraining the transformation we hoped for. The secrets that might have been kept in Farah’s Somalia could have led to the sadness that Kalaman experienced. Perhaps if we deal with matters of our complex transformation project openly, including the nature and content of our negotiated political settlement, maybe no South African would be storm-beaten, sad, mournful and grieving for our country.
The ANC has been in charge for 16 years – most of it with a 2/3 majority. What do we have to thank for 16 years of a “developmental state in the making”: electricity blackouts, service delivery protests, rate boycotts, crumbling national infrastructure, sewerage running down our streets, worsening water quality, massive corruption, public hospitals that resemble war zones, dumbed down educational system, corporatism, regulatory / political interference in the private sector strangling growth, profit and entrepreneurship.
So much for the developmental state…
It cannot work since SA simply doesn’t have the skills or the right policies in place to drive a developmental state. You cannot have nepotism, strict affirmative action (large number of vacancies because of equity) and cader deployment and expect to run an efficient technocratic bureaucracy.
For all the talk about coordination, strategy and planning within government you can achieve little when the person on the ground cannot read a financial statement, run a sewerage plant or repair a pothole.
Instead the state function as a welfare institution giving jobs to those who would not make it in the private sector, steals from honest hard working citizens to fill their own pockets and put a gun against the head of the private sector demanding they fund and do the job that the “developmental state in the making” should do.
There are, on the African continent, approximately 1 billion people in dire straits. Some of them will be coming south through non-existent borders.
In the south they will find an area in which around 2 million AIDS orphans are growing up in feral conditions.
They will also find a parasitic political group, consuming the resources intended for their constituencies to live a life of grotesque official opulence.
Finally, they will find a few sociologists living in an imaginary world, writing Byzantine treatises in elaborate language, blandly whitewashing it all as somehow respectable.
I’m with Nonno. What is life without a set of guidelines to live by? I am not advocating religious guidelines either, by the way. A good start could be made by just accepting and following the simplest of rules. I am talking here about the rules that allow large groups of people to live together without daily conflict. Stopping at stop streets might be a good way to start? Not littering might just add to the common good?
Not holding my breath.
Vusi, interesting Thought. Mostly facts, few answers and those seem to be in code “matters of our complex transformation project openly, including the nature and content of our negotiated political settlement”. What does this mean? Revisit the settlement and constitution?
My view is that we are sad, etc because some key “developmental state” parameters (education and a competent civil service and parastala management) have largely been ignored by our government. Unless there is a fundamental and massive shift, we will not move forward. The key elements required are noted in your article but without comment. This relates to the civil service and essentially boils down to appointing competent, honest people, not corrupt and incompetent cadres.
Forget semantics, race and red herrings (land); concentrate honestly and efficiently on the delivery of jobs and services. Otherwise it’s game over.
Not a bad article. However, it seems quite likely that South Africa is a developmental state in the “unmaking” — that over the past decade the forces which sought to promote developmentalism have become weaker relative to the forces which seek to plunder the country by any means available.
Unfortunately, both Ramphele and Mangcu are clearly on the side of the plunderers (Ramphele as a product of her World Bank activities and Mangcu as a product of his corporate alliance with Sexwale and company). This rather undercuts your thesis.
SA can only develop and move forward when we improve the quality of our human capital. This can only be achieved through education; and succesful education can only be achieved through the strong family unit.
I don’t feel that black & coloured South Africans are being helped by the plethora of single mom households and outdated practices such as polygamy.
It is the elephant in the room that our leaders will not address.
An excellent article Vusi. I support your views and your proposal. I am storm-beaten, sad, mournful, angry and grieving for our country and our people. I acknowledge that I benefited from past injustices due to my racial classification by the NATS. I realise that to correct past imbalances I have to pay for the sins of my fathers. The same fathers that sent me to fight in a proxy between the USA and the USSR in Angola when I was 18 years old. But I will NEVER, EVER accept my oppression, my exclusion, my marginalisation to maintain an oppressive and exploitative economic system that excludes most South Africans. To grossly enrich a few struggle heroes, their families and their mates turned oppressors and exploiters in chief. That is NOT transformation? It is exploitation masquerading as transformation? It must be stopped.
An excellent article Vusi. I support your views and your proposal. I am storm-beaten, sad, mournful, angry and grieving for our country and our people. I acknowledge that I benefited from past injustices due to my racial classification by the NATS. I realise that to correct past imbalances I have to pay for the sins of my fathers. The same fathers that sent me to fight in a proxy war between the USA and the USSR in Angola when I was 18 years old. But I will NEVER, EVER accept my oppression, my exclusion, my marginalisation to maintain an oppressive and exploitative system that excludes most South Africans. To grossly enrich a few struggle heroes and their mates turned oppressors and exploiters in chief. That is NOT transformation? It is exploitation masquerading as transformation? It must be stopped.
@Creator,
Not everything done by the World Bank is bad. Read Ramphele’s book first, before criticizing her (or her book)
Vusi, sometimes we overcomplicate matters. Sometimes a simple solution can have a major impact. Sometimes, just one individual can have a huge positive impact upon a country.
Mauritius was heading nowhere in the 1970s. One reason was excessive taxation. Taxes were sharply reduced, thousands Mauritian expats returned home and invested in their own country, and Mauritius has been booming since the mid 1980s.
In Nigeria, a tough anti-corruption official cracked down on those smuggling billions abroad a few years ago. Consequently Nigerians invested much more in Nigeria than had been the trend(though smuggling money out no doubt still occurs) and some of the results are starting to show. Nigeria had almost 24 million Internet users in Dec 2009 (up from 10 million in 2008) , corresponding to 16% population penetration. SA has only 5.3 million Internet users, corresponding to around 10% penetration.
I agree with what you are saying, mainly that the problems are caused by our negotiated settelement and we are afraid as south africa to do what is best for our country because we might offend the west. Its time that our goverment does what is best for our the citizens despite who we offend along the way.
I think for me the issue, is that while presumable some of our problems have been caused by more individual having access to services, there has been a negative, growth is service quality. the road are poorer hospitals are understaffed and under-skilled. electricity is in a shambles. What I see is more suffering among the poor. and a lower standard of living across the board. what we have achieved is to pull the whole population down to a lower level of income and service delivery rather that to bring up the poor to more equitable level. Comming form a farming comunity background, i see people who really cared people who gave up everything to not support the apparteid system. Being utterly screwed over by the land restitution process, because they are the wrong colour.
Incisive as always, however the stats are somewhat suspicious, to me they seem to be too far away from the truth, especially considering the fact that in each and every street in most townships, ten or more households rely on a single breadwinner if they are that lucky to have one. Poverty in former white areas is also on a sharp rise – meaning we now have more poor blacks and white than it was the case prior 1994 politicall settlement.
In his book “Architects of Poverty”, Moeletsi Mbeki alleges that the de-industrialization of SA post 1994 was planned with the connivance of the ANC political elite.
I hope Moeletsi is wrong, but I found this book very disturbing.
Nicely captured and this is such a difficult question to address considering the fact that our politics, economic and social issues have become so unpredictable. I am one optimistic person about the future of this country and i believe that all the challenges that are confronting us we will be able to conquere them as times goes, therefore time will tell and judge us not the media that is hellbound on destroying the hopes and dreams of many South Africans. Like the saying goes “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”, therefore after 17 years people shouldn’t expect every problem or challenge to suddenly disappear in thin air it will take time and dedication from the rest of the country to solve some of the major problems that are currently facing us.
@HD
In keeping in line with Dr. Ramphele’s words of “It might be necessary to engage openly about our past, the negotiated political settlement, the present and the future we aim for as a nation. “, it might be useful to note that the majority of South Africans are still new to privileges like electricity, service delivery (no matter how poor), running water, and all the other things you mentioned to be a problem for you and whoever you speak for. To the majority of us out there, these are not real problems, sewerage has been running down our streets for all our lives, but more important to us is how we continue to be poor, have limited economic participation and no land (and wealth) to speak of as our own. I am certain a person having untarred roads would have very little to say about potholes, so elevate your attention to the more urgent problem Bra Vusi is referring to (those of SA being the most unequal country in the world, etc. and so forth). While you at it, invite Johnathan Haze.
@Bra Vusi
Our country is still characterized by a lot of what was wrong with it in our past, the evidence you present still paints a picture that our white counterparts are still way better and favoured by the system than us, and that women are still worse off. People who deny this and reduce our exchanges here to “soft” problems that make our newspaper headlines everyday are the very same people who are hell bent on abolishing apartheid, but maintaining its suggestion, that some people are just naturally better than others, and they deserve a better life.
What is more depressing is to hear people who have just had a nice and warm English breakfast telling people who have not eaten for days to forget about the past and move on, the majority out there is willing to plant the seed of forgiveness, work these lands with togetherness and harvest fruits of a democratic and progressive society, but the likes of HD and Haze, and their simplistic approach to our country’s problems, make it a difficult task to move forward!
I guess what the article is saying is true in the sense that there are some changes that one can atest in terms of human development, but in terms of transformation there is a slight movement. The other cause is the issue of fronting by those with potential to be economically settled.When an opportunity comes for a black/ african man to conquer in certain business sector, we hardly take that, but the very same opportunity comes to our fellow brothers they grab the opportunity.BEE/BBBEE was introduced to enhance our financial muscles, but what had happen to the policy, fronting is the answer. You vsits all the company proclaimed to be owned by blacks you realised that most blacks are just in HR, Corporate services only, they don’t controll the backbone of the company. The only benefit that they have is Mercedes Benz sport car. So the honour is on us to help in the development of our economic status and country.