Post Apartheid and the Consequences for South Africa
Stes de Necker
INTRODUCTION
In 1990 the previous President of the ANC, Nelson Mandela, after an imprisonment of 27 years, was released from prison, and in 1994 the first multi-racial democratic elections were held in South Africa which lead to the overthrown of the National Government, and the political takeover by the ANC.
The outcome of the 1994 election went more or less as was expected.
Aside from the dozens of political groups which contested the election, two major trends manifested after the election i.e. a pluralistic Afro centrism and a pluralistic Euro centrism. (various separately identifiable groups that form a single unit).
White voters largely sided with the traditional white political groups, while the black voters sided predominantly with the black political groups. Coloured voters were more or less evenly divided between the main trends, while the Indians sided mainly behind the Indian leadership.
THE POLITICAL ARENA IN 2014
Today in 2014, whites South Africans not only find themselves in a predisposition regarding their political identity, but also run the risk of political isolation if they are not prepared to switch to a diversified political group. The possibility is increasing that the longer the status quo continues, the black youth 's collective values and norms system, will be influenced to the extent that they will eventually no longer be able to remain objective against the communist -inspired values of the current government.
As I mentioned before, during the late 1990 and early 2000, the main objectives for the black leadership was about self - preservation and survival. After political self - preservation was achieved in 1994, there is now, as was the case with the whites after 1948, a concerted assault on the traditional white possession of the economic power base.
Claims for the nationalising of mines as well as the nationalisation of land and financial institutions on the part of a largely untrained and unqualified black youth, is characteristic of the immature understanding among the youth and most people in South Africa, of the economic realities of Africa.
Frustration among black youth as well as the current government's inability to sufficient progress in their aims for economic self-determination and sustainable development is certainly today the main cause of the spate of senseless violence and crime committed by (mainly) the black youth.
I maintain that one can assume that the adult black population and the young black people feel the same about the state of affairs; they just differ in essence how to go about achieving their objectives.
Crime and violence in South Africa is therefore not a systemic phenomenon, but rather a symptomatic manifestation of a deeper cause, namely frustration. The only way to eradicate this evil is to solve the underlying cause; a larger police force or bigger prisons will not solve the problem.
In the hierarchy of basic needs, there is in fact no significant difference in the basic needs of the White and Black people of South Africa. (See Abraham H. Maslow's hierarchy of human needs)
The major differences lie in the Eurocentric and Afro centric norms and value systems to satisfy these needs, and the mechanism necessary to achieve these objectives.
The tragedy is however, that white people and black people lived together for more than three centuries in this country, and after all this time they never really got to know and understand each other!
Towards the end of the last century, South Africa, mainly because of the development in the field of transportation and communication technology, became part of the "Global Village".
Globalization placed South Africa's development under the new ANC government squarely under the spotlight of the international community.
The latter was largely responsible for the fact that the South African youth ( black and white ) have abandoned many of their traditional value systems in favor of associating with their oversees counterparts, mainly in Europe and America.
The result is that many traditional habits and customs are no longer regarded as important and may even completely disappear over time.
The fact of the matter remains that the youth of today grows up with the founders of these cultural norms and values systems, namely the older generation white and black people, and in this way still learn and inherits the historical differences between black and white people. It was after all the older generation that failed to reconcile the Western and African social customs!
If we want to avoid a future intensification of this cultural struggle in this country, we should as soon as possible (if it is not already too late) learn and respect each other’s traditions and customs and to build a new, ‘ism’, what I want to call, Africanism.
Fortunately, some of our schools are already working in the direction to meet these requirements.
The challenge for the opinion and policy - makers in South Africa today, is to find a commonly accepted (collective) value system that allows for our unique ‘unity in diversity’. Recognition and respect for the identity and preserving the cultural values and norms of all groups in South Africa must be ensured. Only when we achieve that it will no longer be necessary for so many people to leave this country for fear of losing his / her self - preservation.
One of the biggest mistakes the ANC Government could ever make was to attempt to ‘melt’ the different origins, identities, religions, cultures and languages, in one common society.
America is an example where groups of different and diverse identity, live peacefully and un-troubled with each other, but still are proud of their common American identity.
In South Africa, this ideal will only be realized only if everyone is willing to learn, understand and respect each other's values , norms and standards.
The "winner - takes - all” mentality of the past and will no longer succeed in South Africa. The question everyone should ask him or herself is, who is the true Africanist, to have the mandate to be ruler? South Africa is a land of minorities and there is no group which can elevate themselves to be the representatives of another.
The current ANC Government, believe it or not, is in fact also a minority government; It only depends what the criteria is to measure representation.
Escape from the current unbalanced distribution of economic wealth in South Africa, can only be achieved if the current ANC government, can succeed to distribute aid to the economically impoverished part of the population, in an economically viable and sustainable manner.
In a democratic pluralistic society such as South Africa, where both poverty and wealth should not be characterised by colour or creed of any kind, the challenge lies in developing the poor, without impoverishing the affluent.
If the current government is willing to learn one lesson from the previous order, it is how not to solve the “poor black problem “in South Africa by creating a new (colourless) "poor class".
Job creation and mother tongue education has always been the foundation of economic development worldwide and it appears that the current government is busy making great strides in this area. The only negative aspect of this development is the fact that the government will have to seriously guard against the creation of a welfare state.
South Africa has the world's largest welfare system currently, and although recognition should be given to the fact that millions of people are at least able to survive because of the welfare grants they receive monthly from the State, these allowances do not create jobs. (except of course for the number of civil servants to administer the system!)
One wonders what the result would be if the money currently spent on social grants, were rather spent on job creation.
CONCLUSION
True democracy and peace in South Africa is still a long way off.
It will depend entirely on the black political elite if South Africa will succeed in taking it’s rightful place in the International Sosio-political arena.
Forgotten are the noble ideals of the upliftment of the less privileged. Instead, there exists a culture today of "Get as rich as possible as quickly as possible."
In addition, this culture of self-enrichment is only at the disposal of a few privileged loyalists in the ANC. Differ from this group and your right to economic independence will be taken away from you very quickly. It is a culture that embraces a variety of ills, most of which are aimed at the erosion of our constitutional democracy and the maintenance of the unscrupulous and incompetent politicians in their panelled offices and luxury limousines.
Inequitable black economic empowerment, affirmative action and land reform were, and still is, the greatest evils in the ANC political culture.
Once highly productive agricultural land lie uncultivated and unproductive today. The ruins and rusty implements and equipment of once thriving farming units, serve little more than forgotten tombstones of once vibrant and economically active farming communities.
Self-enrichment and personal interest is the order of the day. The inability of the government to take effective action at the stage when they were suppose to do it, caused this ill to proliferate to the point that one gets the impression that there exist a belief that, if you do not grab your share now, don’t cry the day when there is no longer anything left to grab!
CONSEQUENCES OF INCOMPETANT GOVERNANCE
Amongst the myriad of consequences, I wish to highlight only seven of the most severe results.
1. The ‘multicoloured’ rainbow of Emeritus Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu is rapidly being replaced with the mirages of a scorched and desolate desert landscape.
2. Forced integration at all levels of society is destroying our unique cultural diversity and identities and creating a faceless society who do not know who or what they really are.
3. Indiscriminate granting of exploration and mining concessions are working to destroy our natural heritage.
4. Corruption and crime are destroying any hope of this country's potential to position itself as the tourism mecca of the world.
5. Personal gain and an uncompromising devotion to economic and political power, is destroying South Africa
6. Corruption and fraud, at all levels of our society, is destroying South Africa
7. The indiscriminate allocation of social grants and donations to win political votes, is destroying our people's work ethics and productivity.
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