The peaceful resolution of South Africa’s long-standing racial imbroglio 24 years ago seemed to show that even the most intractable disputes could be solved peacefully by compromise and negotiation. Our experience gave new hope to the world that it might be possible to mediate the impossible and that other long-standing disputes might also be resolved through peaceful negotiations.
Twenty-four years ago when we established our new non-racial democracy we hoped that South Africa would settle down to the humdrum process of becoming a normal society. We hoped that we would be less ‘interesting’ than we had been during the preceding 30 years.
We were wrong. South Africa was never destined to be a boring country.
The ongoing SASSA debacle is setting off unprecedented concerns, including but not limited to ineffectual leadership by the Minister of Social Development, allegations and counter-allegations between SASSA and SAPO as potential service provider, and crucially that of dragging the justice system into administering a failing political process.
The Ad Hoc Committee on the Funding of Political Parties recently held public hearings on the Draft Political Party Funding Bill of 2017 (Draft Bill). The Draft Bill seeks to regulate the public and private funding of political parties. The underlying premise of the Draft Bill is that the contestation of electoral politics should be fought on an equal and fair basis, with the citizen as core consideration.
The reality however, is not the case as the increasing influence of money in politics appears to dominate electoral discourse, as opposed to an interrogation of positions, policies and principles.
South Africa is no stranger to the transactional nature of politics and in recent times #GuptaLeaks has exposed the invidious underbelly of politics in the country. This series of leaks has hastened the calls for greater commitment to transparency and accountability and for disclosure to become norm in political life and practice.
In a recent memorial lecture to Oliver Tambo, the now former Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, lifted the veil on how the SACP sees and understands the source of the current state capture. The news headlines claim that at its core, his speech speaks of a country in the early phase of a securocracy. However, that is not at the heart of his speech. It is Nzimande’s first speech after being dismissed by Zuma, and he is doing his analysis of what went wrong, holding Tambo up as an example. This analysis brings some interesting, and some troubling, issues to the fore.
It is important to remember that the SACP leadership was instrumental in Polokwane in 2007 in toppling Mbeki and voting Zuma in. Zuma rewarded them for this with a disproportionate number of Cabinet posts. This allowed them to further the SACP and ANC’s National Democratic Revolution (NDR), among others by smuggling socialist elements into policy (such as the draft legislation on property rights).
The recent “Black Monday” protests have again highlighted how emotional the issues of farm attacks and farm murders are. There was both support for and criticism against the protests, the latter fuelled by some protesters making a political statement by waving the old South African flag.
Some historical background may be instructive. The Mandela government did a great deal to classify the phenomenon of farm attacks as a special category of crime, and to confront it. Among other initiatives, there was a national conference on the matter, a Rural Protection Plan, and establishing committees to implement the Plan. This was done in the early 2000s, in cooperation with the established commando system, which most farmers were part of.
While the outgoing ANC president is heading in his own direction, outside the control of the ANC, the government, and Parliament, the battle for a new ANC president is continuing. There are still three main scenarios for a winner (in alphabetical order): Dlamini-Zuma, Mkhize and Ramaphosa.
According to the numbers of delegates from the various provinces that have now been determined, it is clear that there has been strong growth in Mpumalanga (736 delegates), and only KwaZulu-Natal has more (870). The Eastern Cape and Limpopo come in at three and four (648 and 643 respectively). North West and Gauteng are in the middle group (538 and 508), with the Free State (409), Northern Cape (197) and Western Cape (182) at the lower end. The branches make up 90% of the 5 300 delegates, with the rest coming from the Leagues and the Provincial Executive Committees (PECs).
It is a great pleasure for me to be able to address you this evening during this – my first – visit to Panama.
Panama City is one of the great crossroads of the world – between the two largest oceans – the Atlantic and Pacific, and between the two continents of the new world, North and South America.
There is considerable irony when the United Nations’ (UN) International Day for the Eradication of Poverty falls on the day that the President of the country plays fast and loose with the country’s people and resources, driven by unguarded self-interest and self-enrichment.
